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THE  NATURE-STUDY  IDEA 


THE  NATURE-STUDY 

IDKA  BEING  AN  INTERPRETA- 
TION OF  THE  NEW  SCHOOL- 
MOVEMENT  TO  PUT  THE  CHILD 
IN      SYMPATHY      WITH      NATURE 


^  BY 


L:  H,  BAILEY 


NEW  YORK 
DOUBLEDAY,  PAGE  &  COMPANY 

1905 


Copyright,  1903,  by 
Doubleday,  Page  &  Company 

Published,  April,  1903 


.  ill  rights  reserved, 

including  that  of  translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the  Scandinavian. 


CONTENTS 


"N. 


PART  I 
What   Nature-Study   Is 


I.  What  Is  Nature-Study  ?         .         .         .         . 

II.  Who  Originated  the  Term  Nature-Study  ? 

III.  The  Meaning  of  the  Nature-Study  Movement 

rV.  The  Integument-Man 

V.  Nature-Study  with  Plants       .... 

VI.  The  Growing  of  Plants  by  Children — The  School 
Garden   ....... 

VII.  The  Agricultural  Phase  of  Nature-Study 

VIII.  Review 


PAG£ 

3 

6 

14 
37 
43 

51 

62 
86 


PART  II 

The  Interpretation  of  Nature 

I.  The  Interpretation  of  Nature 

II.  Science  for  Science's  Sake     .         .         .         . 

III.  The  Extrinsic  and  Intrinsic  Views  of  Nature 

IV.  Must  a  '*  Use  "  be  Found  for  Everything  ?     . 
V.  The  New  Hunting        .         .         .         •         . 

VI.     The  Poetic  Interpretation  of  Nature 
VII.     An  Outlook  on  Winter  .         .         .         . 


PAGE 
91 

97 
102 
108 
116 
124 


CONTENTS— Continued 


PART  III 

Some  Practical  Inquiries 
AND  Some  Ways  of  Answering  Them 

How  Shall  I  Know  What  Subjects  to  Choose  ? 

But  If  the  Child  Choose  the  Material,  the  Subject  Wil 
Lack  Continuity  :  What  Then  ?         .         .         . 

Then  Would  You  Give  No  Heed  to  Continuity  ?     . 

How  Shall  I  Make  a  Start  ? 

Is  Not  Subject-Matter  the  First  Consideration  ? 

Would  You  Teach  Heat,  Light  and  Physics  as  Nature 
Study  Topics  ?  . 

Would  You  Teach  '*  Practical  "  and  **  Useful"  Things  ? 

Would  You  Teach  Objects  that  the  Child  Cannot  See  and 
Determine  for  Itself  ?  .         .         .         .         « 

How  Much  Apparatus  Do  I  Need  ?  ... 

Is  It '' Thorough "  ?  .         ,^        .         .         .         . 

But  Will  Not  This  Nature-Study  Be  Called  Superficial  ? 

But  Do  You  Think  That  This  Nature-Study  Will  Make 
Investigators  ?.....,. 


Will  Not  This  Nature-Study  Tend  Still  Further  to  Over 
burden  the  School  ?    , 


Shall  We  Teach  the  Child  to  Collect,  and  Thereby  to  Kill 

Would  You  Tell  the  Child  the  Names  of  the  Things  ? 

Would  You  Begin  by  First  Reading  to  the  Child  About 
Nature  ? 


Now  That  There  Are  So  Many  Nature-Books,  How  Shal 
I  Choose  the  Most  Useful  One  ?        .         .         . 

How  Shall  I  Acquire  Sufficient  Knowledge  to  Enable  Me 
to  Teach  Nature-Study  ?   .         .         ,         . 


PAGE 

132 

133 
134 

135 
135 

136 
136 
137 

138 

138 

14.0 

141 
141 

142 
142 

143 


CONTENTS— Continued 


PAGE 


Is  It  Best  to  Have  a  Professional  Nature-Study  Teacher  to 

Go  from  School  to  School  ?.....     145 

Should  the  Parts  of    a  School-Garden  Be  Apportioned  to 

Pupils,  or  Should  the  Work  Be  Done  in  Common  ?    .     145 

Why  Should  This  Nature-StudyBe  Confined  to  the  Schools  ?     1 50 

What  Shall  We  Do  with   the  Children  in  the  Summer 

Vacation?  .         . 151 

Will  Not  This  Nature-Study  Work  Interfere  <vith  School 

Disciphne  ? ,         .     152 

Shall  I  Correlate  the  Nature-Study  Work  with  Other  Work  ?     153 

Is  Nature-Study  on  the  Wane  ? 157 

Would  You  Advise  Me  to  Take  Up  Nature-Study  Teach- 
ing?   159 


PART  I 


The  Nature-Study  Idea 


WHAT  IS  NATURE-STUDY? 

A  CONTRIBUTOR  to  a  recent  issue  of  a  leading 
technical  journal  has  endeavored  to  find  a  satis- 
factory answer  to  the  question,  "What  is  nature- 
study?"  by  appealing  to  "eminent  scientific  men/' 
The  answers  of  these  men  are  printed  there  in 
full.  Now,  the  nature-study  movement  is  a 
product  of  the  common  schools,  not  of  scientific 
investigation.  Eminent  scientific  attainment,  as 
such,  is  not  to  be  expected  to  enable  persons  to 
give  satisfactory  answer  to  the  question,  for  the 
subject  is  not  in  its  realm.  Happily,  many 
scientific  men  are  also  closely  in  touch  with 
elementary  education,  and  therefore  are  fully  com- 
petent to  discuss  the  nature-study  movement;  but 
it  is  this  very  touch  with  the  common  schools, 
not  their  eminent  scientific  achievements,  that 
gives  them  this  competency.  Some  of  the  answers 
referred  to  above  are  ideal  definitions  from  the 
child-teacher's  point  of  view. 

To  be  sure,  the  term  nature-study  etymologi- 
cally  implies  only  the  study  of  nature;  and 
** nature"   is,   by  conventionality,    understood    to 


4  THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

mean  the  world  of  outdoor  objects  and  phenom- 
ena. But  all  words  and  terms  mean  less  or 
more  than  their  mere  etymology  would  imply, 
and  this  meaning  is  determined  by  usage.  Now 
usage  has  determined  a  definite  office  for  the 
name  nature-study:  it  designates  the  movement 
originating  in  the  common  schools  to  open  the 
pupil's  mind  by  direct  observation  to  a  knowledge 
and  love  of  the  common  things  in  the  child's 
environment.  It  is  a  pedagogical  term,  not  a  scien- 
tific term.  It  is  not  synonymous  with  the  old 
term  "natural  history,"  nor  with  *' biology,"  nor 
with  "elementary  science."  It  is  not  "popular 
science."  It  is  not  the  study  of  nature  merely. 
Nature  may  be  studied  with  either  of  two  objects: 
to  discover  new  truth  for  the  purpose  of  increas- 
ing the  sum  of  human  knowledge ;  or  to  put  the 
pupil  in  a  sympathetic  attitude  toward  nature  for 
the  purpose  of  increasing  the  joy  of  living.  The 
first  object,  whether  pursued  in  a  technical  or 
elementary  way,  is  a  science-teaching  movement, 
and  its  professed  purpose  is  to  make  investigators 
and  specialists.  The  second  object  is  a  nature- 
study  movement,  and  its  purpose  is  to  enable 
every  person  to  live  a  richer  life,  whatever  his 
business  or  profession  may  be.  Nature-study  is 
a  revolt  from  the  teaching  of  mere  science  in 
the  elementary  grades.  In  teaching-practice,  the 
work  and  the  methods  of  the  two  intergrade,  to 
be  sure,  and  as  the  high  school  and  college  are 
approached,  nature-study  passes  into  science- 
teaching,   or  gives  way  to  it ;  but  the  ideals  are 


WHAT    IS    NATURE-STUDY?  5 

distinct — they  should  be  contrasted  rather  than 
compared. 

Nature-study  is  not  science.  It  is  not  knowl- 
edge. It  is  not  facts.  It  is  spirit.  It  is  con- 
cerned with  the  child's  outlook  on  the  world. 

Nature-study  will  endure,  because  it  is  natural 
and  of  universal  application.  Methods  will 
change  and  will  fall  into  disrepute;  its  name 
will  be  dropped  from  curriculums ;  here  and  there 
it  will  be  encased  in  the  schoolmaster's  "method'* 
and  its  life  will  be  smothered;  now  and  then 
it  will  be  overexploited ;  with  many  persons  it 
will  be  a  fad:  but  the  spirit  will  live. 

So  common  is  the  misconception  of  the  mean- 
ing and  mission  of  the  nature-study  movement, 
that  I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  bring 
together  in  book  form  a  few  notes  and  essays  on 
some  of  the  more  salient  features  of  it,  even  if  the 
resulting  book  lack  somewhat  in  homogeneity  and 
have  some  repetitions.  These  pieces  have  been 
written  at  intervals  in  the  past  six  years.  Most  of 
them  were  prepared  for  specific  occasions,  for  the 
purpose  of  discussing  disputed  points  or  of  answer- 
ing challenges ;  some  have  been  prepared  specially 
for  this  collection.  Some  of  them  have  been 
published.  They  are  offered  in  all  humility, 
since  every  person's  view  is  necessarily  colored  by 
his  own  field  of  observation;  but  on  the  main 
thesis — that  nature-study  teaching  is  one  thing 
and  that  science-teaching  for  science's  sake  is 
another — I  have  no  hesitation. 


II 

WHO  ORIGINATED  THE  TERM  NATURE-STUDY? 

A  BRIEF  history  of  the  origin  of  the  contem- 
porary nature-study  movement  will  clarify  our 
ideas  as  to  its  spirit  and  purpose.  I  am  aware 
that  the  history  that  follows  is  incomplete,  and 
that  persons  who  were  connected  with  the  begin- 
nings of  it  are  not  mentioned;  but  I  believe  that 
the  account  will  be  useful  in  giving  us  perspective, 
and  in  establishing  an  approximate  date  for  the 
first  use  of  the  term. 

I  have  engaged  in  a  large  correspondence  for 
the  purpose  of  discovering  something  of  the 
history  of  the  nature-study  movement.  Oftenest, 
perhaps,  I  have  been  referred  to  the  teaching  of 
Agassiz  at  Penikese  as  the  beginning,  at  least  in 
this  country.  Agassiz,  however,  did  not  teach 
nature-study  in  the  special  sense  in  which  we  use 
this  term,  although  he  gave  us  the  motto,  "  Study 
nature,  not  books."  He  taught  the  study  of  nature 
by  the  "  natural  method."  His  instruction  was 
given  from  the  investigator's  or  the  specialist's  view- 
point, and  it  was  intended  primarily  for  students 
and  adults.  The  present  nature-study  movement, 
as  I  have  said,  is  a  product  of  the  elementary 
schools,  not  of  universities,  although  many 
university  and  college  men  have  been  instrumental 

(6) 


HISTORY    OF    NATURE-STUDY        7 

in  forwarding  it.  Cornell  was  perhaps  the  first  uni- 
versity to  take  it  up  as  a  distinct  enterprise  (1895), 
but  the  movement  was  already  well  under  way 
in  many  places  at  that  time.  At  this  institution 
it  became  an  extension-teaching  movement. 
Professor  C.  F.  Hodge  of  Clark  University,  under 
the  inspiration  of  Stanley  Hall,  began  popular 
work  in  nature-study  in  1897. 

The  nature-study  movement  is  a  natural  out- 
growth of  the  modern  teaching  and  investigating 
in  what  we  call  natural  science.  No  doubt  it 
has  been  quickened,  as  a  school  subject,  by  the 
making  of  what  we  know  as  outdoor  books. 

Nature-study  is  not  primarily  a  natural-history 
subject:  it  is  primarily  a  pedagogical  ideal. 
Natural-history  subjects  arc  the  means,  not  the 
end.  Its  beginnings  are  certainly  as  old  as  the 
time  of  Socrates  and  Aristotle.  It  is  a  fruit 
of  the  great  educational  reformers — Comenius, 
Pestalozzi,  Jean  J.  Rousseau,  Froebel  and  the  rest. 
In  a  large  measure,  the  spirit  of  our  present-day 
nature-study  movement — which  seems  so  new  to 
us — is  a  recrudescence.  Just  now  it  represents  a 
reaction  from  the  dry-as-dust  science-teaching. 

What  we  may  legitimately  call  nature-study 
began  to  take  form  in  this  country  from  1884  to 
1890.  Who  first  used  the  term  I  do  not  know; 
and  it  is  of  small  consequence,  because  the  term 
may  mean  much  or  nothing.  The  term  appears 
to  have  been  at  first  a  substitute  for  "object  les- 
sons," "  plant  work,"  **  elementary  science,"  and 
the  like,   because   it  came  to    be  felt    that    these 


8  THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

things  represented  mere  intellectual  ideals  and 
school  "methods."  Dr.  Piez,  of  the  Oswego 
(N.  Y.)  Normal  School,  makes  the  following 
comment  on  the  pedagogical  origin  of  the  nature- 
study  idea :  "  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  nature-study  in  spirit,  if  not  in  name,  is  the 
direct  descendant  of  object  teaching.  Object 
teaching  aimed  at  the  use  of  the  senses  in  acquiring 
knowledge,  and  was  introduced  to  displace  the 
mechanical  *  memory '  method  current  in  the 
schools.  It  was  responsible  for  raising  the  prob- 
lem of  method  among  thoughtful  teachers.  But 
the  '  lessons  on  objects '  were  justly  deserving  the 
criticism  that  they  were  disconnected,  and  that  the 
knowledge  resulting  from  them  was  a  knowledge 
of  isolated  facts  not  organized  into  a  comprehen- 
sive whole.'*  I  will  mention  a  few  persons  who 
were  early  in  the  field,  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
something  of  the  geography  and  motives  of  the 
movement. 

Although  the  teaching  of  Agassiz  may  not 
have  been  nature-study,  as  we  understand  the 
term,  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  present 
nature-study  movement  is  a  proximate  result  of 
the  forces  that  he  set  in  motion.  A  strong  appli- 
cation of  this  influence  to  school-life  was  made  in 
Boston  by  Alpheus  Hyatt  and  Lucretia  Crocker. 
In  various  places,  others  of  Agassiz's  followers 
carried  his  spirit  into  the  schools.  One  of  the 
most  powerful  early  adaptations  of  his  teach- 
ing to  the  common-school  work  was  made  at  the 
State  Normal  School  at  Oswego,  N.  Y.     There 


HISTORY    OF    NATURE-STUDY        9 

was  a  strong  Pestalozzian  influence  in  this  institu- 
tion, under  the  leadership  of  the  late  Dr. 
Sheldon.  Professor  H.  H.  Straight  went  to 
Oswego  in  1876.  He  had  come  under  the 
influence  of  Agassiz  and  Shaler.  He  was  a 
student  of  science,  but  his  views  of  science 
teaching  in  the  elementary  school  underwent 
gradual  but  decided  change,  under  the  Pestalozzian 
influence  in  which  he  was  placed.  He  saw 
the  insufficiency  of  "object  teaching"  as  an  edu- 
cational process.  The  defects  he  sought  to  over- 
come by  "  correlation  of  the  subjects  of  study.'* 
As  director  of  the  practice  school,  he  worked  out 
his  ideas  of  correlation  in  "nature''  subjects  and 
geography  subjects.  His  work  included  the  study 
of  the  common  things  in  the  neighborhood.  In 
1883  Professor  Straight  went  to  the  Cook  County 
(Ills.)  Normal  School  and  taught  there  until 
his  death,  in  1886.  He  had  great  influence  in 
developing  the  ideals  of  this  institution,  and  was 
given  credit  therefor  by  Colonel  Parker,  the 
distinguished  head  of  the  school.  So  far  as  I 
know,  however.  Professor  Straight  did  not  use  the 
term  "  nature-study." 

The  introduction  of  elementary  science  as  an 
organic  part  of  school  work,  ranking  with  arith- 
metic and  grammar,  was  made  in  the  Cook 
County  (Ills.)  Normal  School  as  early  as  1889, 
under  the  presidency  of  Francis  W.  Parker. 
This  introduction  was  made  by  Wilbur  S. 
Jackman,  whose  teaching  and  writing  in  nature- 
study     lines     are    well     known.      In     1884    Mr. 


lo        THE    NATURE-STUDY   IDEA 

Jackman  began  teaching  biology  in  the  Pittsburg 
High  School.  During  five  years'  connection  with 
that  school  he  became  strongly  impressed  with 
the  necessity  of  having  a  broad  foundation  laid  in 
the  elementary  grades  for  the  study  of  science. 
The  pupils  were  ignorant  of  the  simplest  phenom- 
ena that  occurred  about  them.  In  the  spring 
of  1889  he  planned  a  general  course  in  nature- 
study  and  presented  it  to  the  Superintendent  and 
the  Principals  of  the  ward  schools  in  Pittsburg. 
It  was  agreed  that  in  the  fall  he  should  have  the 
privilege  of  meeting  the  teachers  for  the  purpose 
of  starting  this  work  in  the  primary  and  grammar 
grades.  Before  the  year  closed,  however,  he 
received  an  invitation  from  Colonel  Parker  to  enter 
the  Cook  County  Normal  School  and  take  up  the 
work  with  him.  He  entered  on  the  work  in  the 
Cook  County  Normal  School  in  the  fall  of  1889. 
During  this  year  (1889)  he  elaborated  the  plan 
already  begun,  as  above  outlined.  The  features 
which  perhaps  most  distinguished  this  scheme  of 
nature-study  were :  ( i )  That  it  adopted  the  appar- 
ently irregular  plan  of  using  all  the  material 
which  the  "  Rolling  Year,"  season  by  season, 
brought  into  the  lives  of  the  children ;  (2)  that 
it  rejected  the  idea  of  close  and  specialized  study 
of  inert  or  dead  form  and  sought  to  place  the 
children  in  the  fields  and  woods  that  they  might 
study  all  nature  at  work;  and  (3)  that,  instead  of 
looking  upon  nature-study  as  being  supplementary 
to  reading,  writing  and  other  forms  of  expression, 

nature-study  in  itself  became  a  demand  that  these 

360s 


HISTORY    OF    NATURE-STUDY      ii 

subjects  should  be  taught.  In  the  fall  of  1890  he 
published  bi-monthly  pamphlets  averaging  about 
75  pages  each,  which  were  called  "  Outlines  in 
Elementary  Science."  In  the  spring  of  1 89 1 ,  upon 
the  completion  of  the  series,  Henry  Holt  &  Com- 
pany asked  the  privilege  of  reprinting  and  issuing 
them  in  book  form.  This  was  done.  There  was 
considerable  correspondence  concerning  the  name, 
which  resulted  finally  in  the  adoption  of  the  term 
"Nature-Study  for  Common  Schools,"  and  this 
term  has  been  used  continuously  ever  since. 

Another,  and  an  independent,  movement  started 
nearly  simultaneously  in  Massachusetts,  under  the 
leadership  of  Arthur  C.  Boyden,  now  Vice-Principal 
of  the  State  Normal  School  at  Bridgewater,  Mass. 
In  1889  a  committee  was  appointed  in  the 
Plymouth  County  Teachers'  Association  to  recom- 
mend a  plan  of  introducing  nature-study  into 
the  schools  of  the  county.  For  a  number  of 
years  previous  to  this  time  a  definite  series  of 
lessons  on  minerals,  plants  and  animals  had  been 
taught  in  the  Bridgewater  Normal  School,  and 
many  superintendents  and  teachers  who  graduated 
from  the  school  were  teaching  the  subjects  in 
various  parts  of  the  county.  It  seemed  to  be  the 
time  for  a  concerted  plan  of  work,  and  a  few 
persons  who  were  interested  in  it  took  this  means 
of  starting.  An  outline  for  the  study  of  trees  was 
prepared  and  sent  to  every  school  in  the  county, 
with  provisions  for  a  report  from  each  town  at 
the  next  annual  meeting.  This  plan  was  con- 
tinued   for    a  number    of   years,    and   usually    an 


12         THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

exhibition  of  the  results  was  made.  The  work 
secured  such  a  good  hold  that  the  committee  was 
finally  discontinued.  In  the  same  year  the  sub- 
ject was  taught  in  the  institutes,  held  each  fall 
and  spring  throughout  the  State  under  the 
auspices  of  the  State  Board  of  Education,  and  then 
for  ten  years  Mr.  Boyden  taught  and  lectured 
in  these  institutes  from  one  end  of  the  State  to 
the  other.  Printed  outlines  and  illustrated  lessons 
were  given.  In  1889,  also,  a  department  of 
nature-study  was  established  in  the  summer  school 
at  Cottage  City,  and  Mr.  Boyden  carried  it  on 
till  1 90 1.  The  definite  beginning  of  the 
movement,  as  such,  in  Massachusetts  seems  to 
have  been  in  1889.  At  first  the  work  was 
called  "elementary  science,''  but  this  seemed 
to  be  inappropriate,  and  "nature-study"  was 
suggested.  This  term  seemed  to  be  a  good 
equivalent  of  the  German  "Naturkunde'' — nature 
knowledge.  On  all  programmes  it  was  thus  printed 
and  quickly  secured  standing.  Shortly  after  the 
movement  began,  the  "Conference  of  Educational 
Workers''  was  established.  One  of  the  commit- 
tees had  charge  of  nature-study  and  met  monthly 
in  Boston.  Mr.  G.  H.  Martin,  Agent  of  the 
Board  of  Education,  was  chairman,  and  Mr. 
Boyden  was  secretary.  They  worked  out  courses 
of  study  for  distribution,  and  one  year  they  had 
a  large  exhibit  from  the  whole  State  of  the  results 
of  the  work.  These  exhibits  were  common  in 
cities  between  1890  and  1895. 

About    1889   the    term    nature-study   was  used 


HISTORY    OF    NATURE-STUDY      13 

independently  by  Frank  Owen  Payne.  He  com- 
pounded it,  using  the  hyphen  at  the  suggestion 
of  A.  N.  Kellogg.  Mr.  Payne  began  his  work 
in  nature-study  in  1884,  when  a  teacher  in  Corry, 
Pennsylvania.  In  i  886-1  889  he  lectured  on  the 
subject  in  Minnesota,  and  later  in  New  Jersey. 
Beginning  with  1889,  he  became  a  regular  con- 
tributor to  the  New  York  School  Journal,  there 
using  the  term  nature-study. 

Many  schools  in  several  States  were  introduc- 
ing elementary  science  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
eighties,  and  it  seems  that  several  of  them  began 
to  use  the  term  nature-study  without  knowing 
where  or  how  the  term  was  suggested.  The 
nature-study  idea  is  now  widespread  and  thor- 
oughly established.  It  marks  an  epochal  change 
of  front  in  the  aims  of  education,  developing  the 
purpose  and  the  means  of  putting  the  child  into 
relation  with  the  actual  world  in  which  he  lives. 


Ill 

THE  MEANING  OF  THE  NATURE-STUDY  MOVEMENT 

It  is  one  of  the  marks  of  the  evolution  of  the 
race  that  we  are  coming  more  and  more  into 
sympathy  with  the  objects  of  the  external  world. 
These  things  are  a  part  of  our  lives.  They  are 
central  to  our  thoughts.  The  happiest  life  has 
the  greatest  number  of  points  of  contact  with  the 
world,  and  it  has  the  deepest  feeling  and  sympathy 
for  everything  that  is.  The  best  thing  in  life  is 
sentiment  ;  and  the  best  sentiment  is  that  which 
is  born  of  the  most  accurate  knowledge.  I  like  to 
make  this  application  of  Emerson's  injunction  to 
"hitch  your  wagon  to  a  star'';  but  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  one  must  have  the  wagon  before 
one  has  the  star.  Mere  facts  are  dead,  but  the 
meaning  of  the  facts  is  life.  The  getting  of  in- 
formation is  but  the  beginning  of  education. 
*'With  all  thy  getting,  get  understanding." 

Of  late  years  there  has  been  a  rapidly  growing 
feeling  that  we  must  live  closer  to  nature ;  and  we 
must  perforce  begin  with  the  child.  We  attempt 
to  teach  this  nature-love  in  the  schools,  and  we 
call  the  effort  nature-study.  It  would  be  better 
if  it  were  called  nature-sympathy. 

As  yet  there  are  no  codified  methods  of  teach- 
ing nature-study.     The  subject  is  not    a    formal 

(14) 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY      15 

part  of  the  curriculum;  and  thereby  it  is  not 
perfunctory.  And  herein  lies  much  of  its  value 
— in  the  fact  that  it  cannot  be  reduced  to  a  system, 
is  not  cut  and  dried,  cannot  become  a  part  of  rigid 
school  methods.  Its  very  essence  is  spirit.  It  is 
as  free  as  its  subject-matter,  as  far  removed  from 
the  museum  and  the  cabinet  as  the  skeleton  is 
from  the  living  animal. 

It  thus  transpires  that  there  is  much  confusion 
as  to  what  nature-study  is,  because  of  the  different 
attitudes  of  its  various  exponents ;  but  these  differ- 
ent attitudes  are  largely  the  reflections  of  different 
personalities  and  the  v^orking  out  of  different 
methods.  There  may  be  twenty  best  ways  of 
teaching  nature-study.  It  is  essentially  the  ex- 
pression of  one's  outlook  on  the  world.  We 
must  define  nature-study  in  terms  of  its  purpose, 
not  in  terms  of  its  methods.  It  is  not  doing  this 
or  that.  It  is  putting  the  child  into  intimate  and 
essential  contact  with  the  things  of  the  external 
world.  Whatever  the  method,  the  final  result  of 
nature-study  teaching  is  the  development  of  a  keen 
personal  interest  in  every  natural  object  and 
phenomenon. 

There  are  two  or  three  fundamental  miscon- 
ceptions of  what  nature-study  is  or  should  be ; 
and  to  these  we  may  now  give  attention. 

Fundamentally,  nature-study  is  seeing  what  one 
looks  at  and  drawing  proper  conclusions  from 
what  one  sees ;  and  thereby  the  learner  comes  into 
personal  relation  and  sympathy  with  the  object. 
It  is  not  the  teaching  of   science — not    the  sys- 


1 6         THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

tematic  pursuit  of  a  logical  body  of  principles. 
Its  object  is  to  broaden  the  child's  horizon,  not, 
primarily,  to  teach  him  how  to  widen  the  boun- 
daries of  human  knowledge.  It  is  not  the 
teaching  of  botany  or  entomology  or  geology,  but 
of  plants,  insects  and  fields.  But  many  persons 
who  are  teaching  under  the  name  of  nature-study 
are  merely  teaching  and  interpreting  elementary 
science. 

Again,  nature-study  is  studying  things  and  the 
reason  of  things,  not  about  things.  It  is  not 
reading  from  nature-books.  A  child  was  asked 
if  she  had  ever  seen  the  great  dipper.  **  Oh,  yes,'* 
she  replied,  *'I  saw  it  in  my  geography."  This 
is  better  than  not  to  have  seen  it  at  all ;  but  the 
proper  place  to  have  seen  it  is  in  the  heavens. 
Nature-readers  may  be  of  the  greatest  use  if  they 
are  made  incidental  and  secondary  features  of  the 
instruction ;  but,  however  good  they  may  be,  their 
influence  is  pernicious  if  they  are  made  to  be 
primary  agents.  The  child  should  first  see  the 
thing.  It  should  then  reason  about  the  thing. 
Having  a  concrete  impression,  it  may  then  go  to 
the  book  to  widen  its  knowledge  and  sympathies. 
Having  seen  mimicry  in  the  eggs  of  the  aphis  on 
the  willow  or  apple  twig,  or  in  the  walking-stick, 
the  pupil  may  then  take  an  excursion  with  Wallace 
or  Bates  to  the  tropics  and  there  see  the  striking 
mimicries  of  the  leaf-like  insects.  Having  seen  the 
wearing  away  of  the  boulder  or  the  ledge,  he  may 
go  to  Switzerland  with  Lubbock  and  see  the 
mighty  erosion  of  the  Alps.      Now  and  then  the 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY      17 

order  may  be  reversed  with  profit,  but  this  should 
be  the  exception:  from  the  wagon  to  the  star 
should  be  the  rule. 

Yet  again,  nature-study  is  not  the  teaching  of 
facts  for  the  sake  of  the  facts.  It  is  not  the  giving 
of  information  merely — notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  some  nature-study  leaflets  are  information 
leaflets.  We  must  begin  with  the  fact,  to  be  sure, 
but  the  lesson  is  not  the  fact  but  the  significance 
of  the  fact.  It  is  not  necessary  that  the  fact  have 
direct  practical  application  to  the  daily  life,  for 
the  object  is  the  effort  to  train  the  mind  and  the 
sympathies.  It  is  a  common  notion  that  when 
the  subject-matter  is  insects,  the  pupil  should  be 
taught  the  life-histories  of  injurious  insects  and 
how  to  destroy  the  pests.  Now,  nature-study  may 
be  equally  valuable  whether  the  subject  is  the 
codlin-moth  or  the  ant ;  but  to  confine  the  pupil's 
attention  to  insects  that  are  injurious  to  man  is  to 
give  him  a  distorted  and  untrue  view  of  nature. 
A  bouquet  of  daisies  does  not  represent  a  meadow. 
Children  should  be  interested  more  in  seeing 
things  live  than  in  killing  them.  Yet  I  would  not 
emphasize  the  injunction,  "Thou  shalt  not  kill.'' 
Nature-study  is  not  recommended  for  the  explicit 
teaching  of  morals.  I  should  prefer  to  have  the 
child  become  so  much  interested  in  living  things 
that  it  would  have  no  desire  to  kill  them.  The 
gun  and  sling-shot  and  fish-pole  will  be  laid  aside 
because  the  child  does  not  like  them  any  more. 
We  have  been  taught  that  one  must  make  collec- 
tions if  he  is  to  be  a  naturalist.      But    collections 


1 8        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

make  museums,  not  naturalists.  The  scientist 
needs  these  collections ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that 
children  always  need  them  To  be  taught  how  to 
kill  is  to  alienate  the  pupil's  affection  and  sympathy 
from  the  object  he  is  studying.  It  may  be  said 
that  it  is  necessary  to  kill  insects ;  the  farmer  had 
this  thought  in  mind  when  he  said  to  one  of  our 
teachers :  "  Give  us  more  potato-bug  and  less 
pussy  willow."  It  is  true  that  we  must  fight 
insects,  but  that  is  a  matter  of  later  practice,  not 
of  education.  It  should  be  an  application  of 
knowledge,  not  a  means  of  acquiring  it.  '  It  may 
be  necessary  to  have  war,  but  we  do  not  teach  our 
children  to  shoot  their  playmates. 

Nature-study  is  not  merely  the  adding  of  one 
more  thing  to  a  curriculum.  It  is  not  coordinate 
with  geography  or  reading  or  arithmetic.  Neither 
is  it  a  mere  accessory,  or  a  sentiment,  or  an 
entertainment,  or  a  tickler  of  the  senses.  It  is 
not  "a  study."  It  is  not  the  addition  of  more 
**  work."  It  has  to  do  with  the  whole  point  of 
view  of  elementary  education,  and  therefore  is 
fundamen'tal.  It  is  the  full  expression  of  person- 
ality. It  is  the  practical  working  out  of  the 
extension  idea  that  has  been  so  much  a  part  of 
our  time.  More  than  any  other  recent  movement, 
it  will  reach  the  masses  and  revive  them.  In  time 
it  will  transform  our  ideals  and  then  transform  our 
methods. 

Nature-study  stands  for  directness  and  naturalness. 
It  is  astonishing,  when  one  comes  to  think  of  it, 
how  indirect  and  how  unrelated  to  the  lives  of 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY     19 

pupils  much  of  our  education  has  been.  Geogra- 
phies begin  with  the  earth,  and  finally,  perhaps, 
come  down  to  some  concrete  and  familiar  object 
or  scene  that  the  pupil  can  understand.  Arithmetic 
has  to  do  with  brokerage  and  partnerships  and 
partial  payments  and  other  things  that  mean  nothing 
to  the  child.  Botany  has  to  do  with  cells  and 
protoplasm  and  cryptogams.  History  deals  with 
political  affairs,  and  only  rarely  comes  down  to 
physical  facts  and  to  those  events  that  have  to  do 
with  the  real  lives  of  the  people ;  and  yet  political 
and  social  affairs  are  only  the  results  or  expressions 
of  the  way  in  which  people  live.  Readers  begin 
with  mere  literature  or  with  stories  of  things  that 
the  child  will  never  see  or  do.  Of  course  these 
statements  are  meant  to  be  only  general,  as  illus- 
trating what  is  even  yet  a  great  fault  in  educational 
methods.  There  are  many  exceptions,  and  these 
are  becoming  commoner.  Surely,  the  best 
education  is  that  which  begins  with  the  materials  at 
hand.  A  child  asks  what  a  stone  is  before  it  asks 
what  the  earth  is. 

How    nature-study  may  be  taught. 

There  are  two  ways  of  interpreting  nature — 
by  way  of  fact  and  by  way  of  fancy.  To  the 
scientist  and  to  the  average  man  the  interpretation 
by  fact  is  often  the  only  admissible  one.  He 
may  not  be  open  to  argument  or  conviction  that 
there  can  be  any  other  truthful  way  of  knowing 
the  external  world.  Yet,  the  artist  and  the  poet 
know  this  world,  and    they   do    not  know  it  by 


20         THE    NATURE-STUDY   IDEA 

mere  knowledge  or  by  analysis.  It  appeals  to 
them  in  its  moods,  not  in  its  details.  Yet  it  is 
as  real  to  them  as  to  the  analyst.  Too  much  are 
we  of  this  generation  tied  to  mere  phenomena. 

We  have  a  right  to  a  poetic  interpretation  of 
nature.  The  child  comes  to  know  nature 
through  its  imagination  and  feeling  and  sym- 
pathy. Note  the  intent  and  sympathetic  face 
as  the  child  watches  the  ant  carrying  its  grains  of 
sand  and  pictures  to  itself  the  home  and  the  bed 
and  the  kitchen  and  the  sisters  and  the  school 
that  comprise  the  little  ant*s  life.  What  does 
the  flower  think  ?  Who  are  the  little  people  that 
teeter  and  swing  in  the  sunbeam?  What  is  the 
brook  saying  as  it  rolls  over  the  pebbles  ?  Why 
is  the  wind  so  sorrowful  as  it  moans  on  the 
house-corners  in  the  dull  November  days  ?  There 
are  elves  whispering  in  the  trees,  and  there  are 
chariots  of  fire  rolling  on  the  long  low  clouds  at 
twilight.  Wherever  it  may  look,  the  young 
mind  is  impressed  with  the  mystery  of  the 
unknown.  The  child  looks  out  to  Nature  with 
great  eyes  of  wonder. 

Child  with  the  gray-blue  eyes 

Gazing  so  longingly — 
Yonder  the  great  world  lies — 

All  is  unknown  to  thee ! 

Child  unwedded  to  care, 

Softly  speedeth  the  hours — 

Thou  buildest  castles  in  air 

And  strew'st  thy  path  with  flowers. 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY     21 

Build  071  in  thy  dreaming^ 

Nor  thy  fancies  are  vain; 
The  best  of  lifers  seeming 

Are  its  castles  in  Spain  I 

The  good  New  England  poets,  did  not  they 
know  nature  ?  Have  they  not  left  us  the  very 
essence  and  flavor  of  the  fields  and  the  woods  and 
the  sky  ?  And  yet  they  were  not  scientists,  not 
mere  collectors  of  facts.  So  different  are  these 
types  of  interpretation  that  we  all  unconsciously 
do  as  I  did  in  my  last  sentence — we  set  the  poet 
over  against  the  scientist. 

Yet  poetry  is  not  mere  sentiment.  The  poet 
has  first  known  the  fact.  His  poetry  is  misleading 
if  his  observations  are  wrong.  Therefore,  as  I 
have  said,  I  should  begin  my  nature-study  with 
facts ;  for  facts  are  tangible,  but  sentiments  cannot 
be  seen.  Whatever  else  we  are,  we  must  have  the 
desire  to  be  definite  and  accurate.  We  begin  on 
the  earth;  later,  we  may  drive  our  Pegasus  to  a 
star. 

Do  not  misunderstand.  I  would  not  teach 
nature-subjects  in  order  that  the  poetic  point  of 
view  may  be  enforced.  I  plead  only  that  the 
poetic  interpretation  is  allowable  on  occasion. 

How  shall  nature-study  be  taught  ?  By  the 
teacher,  not  by  the  book.  The  teacher  will  need 
helps.  There  are  books  and  leaflets  that  will  help 
him.  These  publications  may  be  put  in  the  hands 
of  pupils  if  it  is  always  made  plain  that  the  reci- 
tation is  to  be  from  things  which  the  pupil  has 
seen,  not  from  the  book.      There  can  be  no  text- 


22        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

book  of  nature-study,  for  when  one  studies  a  book 
he  does  not  study  nature.  Nature-study  books 
and  leaflets  are  guides,  not  texts.  The  book  should 
be  a  guide  to  the  animal  or  plant :  the  animal  or 
plant  should  not  be  a  guide  to  the  book. 

The  teacher  will  need  help  both  in  methods  and 
in  facts.  The  method,  however,  is  not  to  be  a 
codified  series  of  laws  or  a  hard-and-fast  system ; 
but  there  should  be  some  underlying  pedagogical 
principle  which  will  run  through  every  item  of 
the  work.  There  will  be  opportunity  for  endless 
variation  in  the  details  and  in  the  little  applications 
of  the  work.  The  personality  of  the  teacher 
must  always  stand  out  strongly.  We  need  the 
very  best  of  teachers  for  nature-study  work — 
those  who  have  the  greatest  personal  enthusiasm, 
and  who  are  least  bound  by  the  traditions  of  the 
classroom.  The  teacher,  to  be  ideal,  must  have 
more  time,  more  inspiration  and  more  knowledge. 
It  is  better  if  the  teacher  have  a  large  knowledge 
of  science,  but  nature-study  may  be  taught  with- 
out great  knowledge  if  one  sees  accurately  and 
infers  correctly  from  the  particular  subject  in 
hand. 

fThe  teacher  should  studiously  avoid  starting  with 
definitions  and  the  setting  of  patterns.  Definitions 
should  be  the  result  or  summary  of  the  study,  not 
the  beginning  of  it.  Mere  patterns  should  only 
afford  means  of  comparison,  and  not  be  regarded 
as  useful  in  themselves ;  and  even  then  they  are 
often  misleading.  The  old  idea  of  the  model 
flower  is  an  unfortunate  one,  simply  because  the 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY  1!  23 

model  flower  does  not  exist  in  nature.  The 
model  flower,  the  complete  leaf,  and  the  like,  are 
inferences ;  and  the  pupil  should  begin  with 
things  and  not  with  mere  ideas.  In  other  words, 
the  ideas  should  be  suggested  by  the  things,  and 
not  the  things  by  the  ideas.  "  Here  is  a  drawing 
of  a  model  flower/'  the  old  method  says ;  '*  go 
and  find  the  nearest  approach  to  it."  **Go  and 
find  me  a  flower,*'  is  the  true  method,  **  and  let 
us  see  what  it  is." 

Two  factors  determine  the  proper  subjects  for 
nature-study.  First,  the  subject  must  be  that  in 
which  the  teacher  is  most  interested  and  of  which 
he  has  the  most  knowledge;  second,  the  subject 
must  be  that  which  is  commonest  and  which  can 
be  most  easily  seen  and  appreciated  by  the  pupil, 
and  which  is  nearest  and  dearest  to  his  life.  The 
tendency  is  to  go  too  far  afield  for  the  subject- 
matter.  We  are  more  likely  to  know  the  wonders 
of  China  or  Brazil  than  of  our  own  brooks  and 
woods.  If  the  subject-matter  is  of  such  kind  that 
the  children  can  collect  the  objects  as  they  come  and 
go  from  the  school,  the  results  will  be  the  better. 

With  children,  begin  with  naked-eye  objects. 
As  the  pupil  matures  and  becomes  interested,  the 
simple  microscope  may  be  introduced  now  and 
then.  Children  of  twelve  years  and  more  may  carry 
a  pocket  lens ;  but  the  best  place  to  use  this  lens  is 
in  the  field.  The  best  nature-study  observation  is 
that  which  is  done  out-of-doors  ;  but  some  of  it 
can  be  made  from  material  brought  into  the 
schoolroom. 


24        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

It  is  a  sound  pedagogical  principle  that  the  child 
should  not  be  taught  those  things  that  are  neces- 
sarily foreign  to  the  sphere  of  its  life  and  experi- 
ences. It  should  not  have  mere  dilutions  of 
science.  The  young  child  cannot  understand 
cross-fertilization  of  flowers,  and  should  not  be 
taught  the  subject.  The  subject  is  beyond  the 
child's  realm.  When  we  teach  it,  we  are  only 
translating  what  grown-up  investigators  have  dis- 
covered by  means  of  faithful  search.  At  best,  it 
will  only  be  an  exotic  thing  to  the  child.  Pollen 
and  stamens  are  not  near  and  dear  to  the  child. 

There  are  three  factors  in  the  teaching  of  nature- 
study  : 

( 1 )  The  fact, 

(2)  The  reason  for  the  fact, 

(3)  The  interrogation  left  in  the  mind  of  the 
pupil. 

It  is  impossible  to  find  a  natural  history  object 
from  which  these  three  factors  cannot  be  drawn, 
for  every  object  is  a  fact  and  every  fact  has  a  cause, 
and  children  may  be  interested  in  both  the  fact 
and  the  cause.  It  may  be  better,  of  course,  to 
choose  definite  subjects,  taking  pains,  at  least  at 
first,  to  select  those  having  emphatic  characters. 
But  even  in  the  dullest  days  of  winter  sufficient 
material  may  be  found  to  keep  the  interest  aflame. 
A  twig  or  branch  may  be  at  hand.  There  should 
be  enough  specimens  to  supply  each  child.  Let 
the  teacher  ask  the  pupils  what  they  see.  The 
replies  will  discover  the  first  factor  in  the  teach- 
ing— the  fact.      However,  not  every  fact   is  signi- 

%Tstci^  Come 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY     25 

ficant  to  the  teacher  or  to  the  particular  pupils. 
It  remains  for  the  teacher  to  pick  out  the  fact  or 
answer  that  is  most  significant.  The  teacher 
should  know  what  is  significant  and  he  should 
keep  the  point  clearly  before  him.  One  pupil 
says  that  the  twig  is  long ;  another  that  it  is 
brown ;  another  that  it  is  crooked  ;  another  that 
it  is  from  an  apple  tree  ;  another  that  it  has  several 
unlike  branchlets  or  parts.  Now,  this  last  reply 
may  appeal  to  the  teacher  as  a  most  significant 
fact.  Stop  the  questioning  and  open  the  second 
epoch  in  the  instruction — the  reason  why  no 
two  parts  are  alike.  As  before,  from  the  great 
number  of  responses  the  significant  reason  may  be 
developed  :  it  is  because  no  two  parts  have  lived 
under  exactly  the  same  conditions.  One  had 
more  room  or  more  sunlight  and  it  grew  larger. 
The  third  epoch  follows  naturally :  are  there 
any  two  objects  in  nature  exactly  alike  ?  Let  the 
pupils  think  about  it. 

Choose  a  stone.  If  similar  stones  are  passed 
about  to  the  pupils,  you  ask  first  for  the  observa- 
tion or  the  fact.  One  says  the  stone  is  long ; 
another,  it  is  light ;  another,  it  is  heavy  ;  another, 
that  the  edges  are  rounded.  This  latter  fact  is 
very  significant.  You  stop  the  observation  and 
ask  why  it  is  rounded.  Some  one  replies  that  it 
is  because  it  is  water-worn.  Query  :  Are  all 
stones  in  brooks  rounded  ?  Numberless  applica- 
tions and  suggestions  can  be  made  from  this  simple 
lesson.  What  becomes  of  the  particles  that  are 
worn  away  ?     How  has  soil  been  formed  r      How 


26         THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

has  the  surface  of  the  fields  been  shaped  and 
molded  ? 

It  is  not  necessary  that  the  teacher  always  know 
the  reason.  He  can  ask  the  pupils  to  find  out  and 
report  next  day.  It  is  the  strong  teacher  who 
can  say  :  "  I  do  not  know.'*  If  a  problem  had 
been  sent  to  Agassiz  or  Asa  Gray  and  he  had 
not  understood  it,  would  he  have  dissimulated  or 
have  evaded  in  the  answer  ?  Would  he  not 
have  said  boldly  "I  do  not  know"  ?  Such  men 
delve  for  knowledge,  but  for  every  fact  that 
they  discover  they  turn  up  a  dozen  mysteries. 
Knowledge  begins  in  wonder.  The  conscious- 
ness of  ignorance  is  the  first  result  of  wonder,  and 
it  leads  the  pupil  on  and  on  :  it  is  the  spirit  of 
inquiry. 

These  illustrations  are  given  merely  as  examples. 
They  may  not  be  ideal,  but  they  show  what  can 
be  done  with  very  common  material.  In  fact, 
the  surprise  and  interest  is  often  all  the  greater 
because  the  objects  are  so  very  common  and 
familiar. 

To  my  mind,  the  best  of  all  subjects  for  nature- 
study  is  a  brook.  It  affords  studies  of  many  kinds. 
It  is  near  and  dear  to  every  child.  It  is  an 
epitome  of  the  nature  in  which  we  live.  In 
miniature,  it  illustrates  the  forces  which  have 
shaped  much  of  the  earth's  surface.  It  reflects 
the  sky.  It  is  kissed  by  the  sun.  It  is  rippled  by 
the  wind.  The  minnows  play  in  the  pools.  The 
soft  weeds  grow  in  the  shallows.  The  grass  and 
the  dandelions  lie  on  its  sunny  banks.     The  moss 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY     27 

and  the  fern  are  sheltered  in  the  nooks.  It  comes 
from  one  knows  not  whence :  it  flows  to  one 
knows  not  whither.  It  awakens  the  desire  to 
explore.  It  is  fraught  with  mysteries.  It  typifies 
the  flood  of  life.      It  "  goes  on  forever." 

In  other  words,  the  reason  why  the  brook  is 
such  a  perfect  nature-study  subject  is  the  fact  that 
it  is  the  central  theme  in  a  scene  of  life.  Living 
things  appeal  to  children.  To  relate  the  nature- 
study  work  to  living  animals  and  plants  is  the 
fundamental  idea  in  Hodge's  ideal,  as  expressed, 
for  example,  in  his  book,  **  Nature-Study  and 
Life.''  He  holds  that  the  appreciation  of  inani- 
mate things  is  a  later  development  in  the  child-life 
than  an  appreciation  of  objects  that  are  living.  He 
would,  therefore,  not  begin  with  weathering  of 
rock  and  formation  of  soil,  combustion  and  the 
like,  although  he  would  "  not  wish  to  insinuate  that 
the  study  of  living  things  is  all  of  nature-study." 
With  this  I  agree  for  the  very  young,  and  I  would 
study  a  brook  or  a  fence-corner  or  a  garden-bed 
or  a  bird  or  a  plant.  However,  the  teacher  and 
the  way  of  teaching  are  more  important  than  the 
subject  matter,  and  there  are  good  nature-study 
teachers  who  are  better  fitted  to  teach  inanimate 
than  animate  subjects. 

One  of  the  first  things  that  a  child  should  learn 
when  he  comes  to  the  study  of  natural  history  is 
the  fact  that  no  tw^o  objects  are  alike.  This  leads 
to  an  apprehension  of  the  correlated  fact  that 
every  animal  and  plant  contends  for  an  opportunity 
to  live,  and  this  is  the  central  fact  in  the  study  of 


28        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

living  things.  The  world  has  a  new  meaning 
when  this  fact  is  understood.  This  is  the  key- 
that  unlocks  many  mysteries,  and  it  is  the  means 
of  establishing  a  bond  of  sympathy  between  our- 
selves and  the  world  in  which  we  live. 

It  is  a  common  mistake  to  attempt  to  teach  too 
much  at  every  exercise ;  and  the  teacher  is  also 
appalled  at  the  amount  of  information  which  he 
must  have.  Suppose  that  one  teaches  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  days  in  the  year.  Start  out  with 
the  determination  to  drop  into  the  pupils'  minds 
two  hundred  and  fifty  suggestions  about  nature. 
One  suggestion  is  sufficient  for  a  day.  Let  them 
think  about  it  and  ponder  over  it.  We  stuff  our 
children  so  full  of  facts  that  they  cannot  digest 
them.  I  should  prefer  ten  minutes  a  day  of 
nature-study  to  two  hours ;  but  I  should  want  it 
quick  and  sharp.  I  should  want  it  designed  to 
develop  the  observing  and  reasoning  powers  of  the 
child  and  not  to  give  mere  information.  It 
should  be  vivid  and  spontaneous.  Spirit  counts 
for  more  than  knowledge. 

Taught  in  this  way,  nature-study  work  is  not  an 
additional  burden  to  the  teacher,  but  a  relief  and 
a  relaxation.  It  may  come  at  the  opening  of  the 
school  hour,  or  at  the  close  of  a  hard  period,  or 
at  any  other  time  when  an  opportunity  offers.  It 
can  often  be  combined  with  the  regular  studies  of 
the  school,  and  in  that  way  it  can  be  introduced 
in  places  where  it  would  otherwise  meet  with 
objection.  For  example,  the  subject-matter  of  the 
lesson  may  be  used  for  the  exercise  in  drawing  or 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY     29 

in  geography.  Let  the  child  draw  the  twigs ; 
but  always  be  careful  lest  the  drawing  become 
more  important  than  the  twigs. 

What  may  be  the  results  of  nature-study  ? 

Its  legitimate  result  is  education — the  develop- 
ing of  mental  power,  the  opening  of  the  eyes 
and  the  mind,  the  civilizing  of  the  individual. 
As  with  all  education,  its  central  purpose  is  to 
make  the  individual  happy ;  for  happiness  is  noth- 
ing more  nor  less  than  pleasant  and  efficient 
thinking.  It  is  often  said  that  the  ignorant  man 
may  be  as  happy  as  the  educated  man.  Relatively, 
this  is  true ;  absolutely,  it  is  not.  A  ten-foot 
well  is  not  so  deep  as  a  twenty-foot  well ;  and 
although  the  ten-foot  well  may  be  full  to  the  brim, 
it  holds  only  half  as  much  water    as    the  other. 

The  happiness  of  the  ignorant  man  is  largely 
the  thoughts  born  of  physical  pleasures;  that  of 
the  educated  man  is  the  thoughts  born  of 
intellectual  pleasures.  One  may  find  comradeship 
in  a  groggery,  the  other  may  find  it  in  a  dandelion  ; 
and  inasmuch  as  there  are  more  dandelions  than 
groggeries  (in  most  communities),  the  educated 
man    has    the  greater  chance  of  happiness. 

Some  persons  object  to  nature-study  because  it 
is  not  systematic  and  graded.  They  think  that  it 
leads  to  disjunctive  and  discursive  work.  My 
first  answer  is  that  the  discursiveness  may  be  its 
charm.  Thereby  comes  the  contrast  with  the 
perfunctory  school  work  ;  and  thereby,  also,  arises 
its  naturalness.     Again,  I  answer  that  nature-study 


30        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

exercises  are  not  to  be  the  dominant  work  in 
the  school.  They  are,  or  should  be,  only  inci- 
dental. The  formal  school  work  will  supply  the 
drill  in  method  and  system ;  nature-study  will 
afford  relaxation,  and  it  will  be  valuable  because 
it  is  short  and  forceful.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
nature-study  will  nearly  always  be  consecutive  in 
subject-matter  because  the  teacher  will  feel  himself 
most  competent  in  one  or  two  lines  and  will 
devote  himself  chiefly  to  them;  or  the  consecu- 
tiveness  may  be  that  of  the  seasons,  following 
the  wild  life  of  the  neighborhood.  The  gist  of 
it  all  is  that  the  mere  exercises  in  nature-study  are 
only  a  means  to  an  end :  it  is  the  nature-study 
spirit,  not  that  exercise  nor  this,  that  is  to  correct 
and  to  enliven  educational  ideals.  The  given 
exercise  may  be  secondary  to  other  subjects  of  the 
school  day,  but  the  point  of  view — the  way  of 
thinking — that  it  inculcates  is  fundamental  and 
will  pervade  the  school  or  the  home. 

My  remarks  on  methods  are  meant,  of  course,  to 
apply  to  children.  As  the  pupil  advances,  the  work 
will  naturally  become  more  systematic,  until,  in  the  . 
high  school,  it  may  develop  into  science-teaching. 
Those  who  complain  that  nature-study  is  desultory 
are  really  thinking  of  science,  not  of  nature-study. 
Although  not  the  teaching  of  science,  as  such, 
nature-study  is  not  unscientific. 

Nature-study  not  only  educates,  but  it  educates 
nature- ward;  and  nature  is  ever  our  companion, 
whether  we  will  or  no.  Even  though  we  are 
determined  to  shut   ourselves    in   an   office,  nature 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY      ::i 


J 


sends  her  messengers.  The  light,  the  dark,  the 
moon,  the  cloud,  the  rain,  the  wind,  the  falling 
leaf,  the  fly,  the  bouquet,  the  bird,  the  cockroach 
— they  are  all  ours. 

If  one  is  to  be  happy,  he  must  be  in  sympathy 
with  common  things.  He  must  live  in  harmony 
with  his  environment.  One  cannot  be  happy 
yonder  nor  to-morrow :  he  is  happy  here  and 
now,  or  never.  Our  stock  of  knowledge  of 
common  things  should  be  great.  Few  of  us  can 
travel.     We  must  know  the  things  at  home. 

Nature-love  tends  toward  naturalness,  and 
toward  simplicity  of  living.  It  tends  country- 
ward.  One  word  from  the  fields  is  worth  two 
from  the  city.      **  God  made  the  country.'* 

I  expect,  therefore,  that  much  good  will  come 
from  nature-study.  It  ought  to  revolutionize  the 
school  life,  for  it  is  capable  of  putting  new  force 
and  enthusiasm  into  the  school  and  the  child.  It 
is  new,  and  therefore  is  called  a  fad.  A  movement 
is  a  fad  until  it  succeeds.  We  shall  learn  much, 
and  shall  outgrow  some  of  our  present  notions, 
but  nature-study  has  come  to  stay.  It  is  in  much 
the  same  stage  of  development  that  manual-training 
and  kindergarten-work  were  twenty-five  years  ago. 
We  must  take  care  that  it  does  not  crystallize 
into  science-teaching  on  the  one  hand,  nor  fall 
into  mere  sentimentalism  on  the  other. 

I  would  again  emphasize  the  importance  of 
obtaining  our  fact  before  we  let  loose  the  imagi- 
nation, for  on  this  point  will  largely  turn  the 
results — -the  failure  or  the  success  of  the  movement. 


32        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

We  must  not  allow  our  fancy  to  run  away  with 
us.  If  we  hitch  our  wagon  to  a  star,  we  must 
ride  with  mind  and  soul  and  body  all  alert.  When 
we  ride  in  such  a  wagon,  we  must  not  forget  to 
put  in  the  tail-board. 

Another  most  important  result  of  the  nature- 
study  movement  will  be  its  effect,  along  with 
manual-training  and  other  forces,  in  gradually 
overturning  present  systems  of  schoolwork.  The 
system  of  memorizing  from  books  will  eventually 
have  to  go.  The  pupil  will  first  be  put  into 
sympathetic  contact  with  objects,  not  put  into 
books.  In  many  ways  we  are  now  in  a  transition 
period  in  our  school  systems.  For  one  thing,  we 
are  living  in  an  era  of  the  material  equipment  of 
schools — the  erecting  of  magnificent  buildings, 
the  gathering  of  extensive  outfits.  This  is  true 
of  colleges  and  universities  as  well  as  of  the 
common  schools.  When  this  era  is  past,  we  shall 
have  more  money  to  spend  for  teachers.  Teaching 
will  be  a  profession  requiring  better  training  and 
commanding  more  pay,  and  men  teachers  will 
come  back  to  it. 

In  this  evolved  and  emancipated  school,  the 
nature-study  spirit  will  prevail,  even  though  the 
name  itself  be  lost.  This  spirit  stands  for 
naturalness  and  the  natural  method,  for  freedom, 
spontaneity,  individual  initiative,  because  it  deals 
first-hand  with  actual  things.  It  stands  for  doing 
and  accomplishing.  It  is  the  active  and  creative 
method.  It  is  a  developing  of  the  powers  of  the 
pupil,  not    hearing    him     recite.      In    spirit     and 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY     33 

method    it    is    opposed    to    the    pouring-in-and- 
dipping-out  process. 

My  own  work  in  nature-study  centers  chiefly 
about  its  value  as  a  means  of  improving  country 
living.  It  may  tend  distinctly  toward  the 
improvement  of  the  farmer,  and  thereby  of 
farming.  Go  into  a  potato-growing  community 
and  ask  the  farmers  where  the  roots  of  the  potato 
plants  are — whether  above  or  below  the  tubers — 
and  you  will  puzzle  them  nearly  every  time.  And 
yet,  a  knowledge  of  the  position  of  the  roots  is 
essential  to  the  best  potato-growing,  for  upon  this 
position  depend  in  part  the  principles  governing 
the  depth  of  planting,  hilling,  and,  to  some 
extent,  of  tilling.  At  a  farmers'  meeting  in  an 
apple-growing  section,  I  asked  how  many  apple 
flowers  are  borne  in  a  cluster.  Every  man  guessed, 
but  no  man  knew.  One  man  said  that  the  limbs 
of  some  of  his  apple  trees  had  died ;  he  asked  me 
why.  I  asked  him  the  symptoms :  but  he  did 
not  know  as  they  had  any  symptoms — they  had 
only  died.  Had  he  looked  at  the  limbs  ?  Yes, 
he  had  seen  them  from  the  barnyard ! 

Now,  I  do  not  care  whether  nature-study 
teaches  where  the  potato  roots  are  or  not.  The 
point  is,  that  nature-study  teaches  the  importance 
of  actually  seeing  the  thing  and  then  of  trying  to 
understand  it.  The  person  who  actually  knows  a 
pussy-willow  will  know  how  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  potato-bug.     He  will  introduce  himself. 

In  recent  years  there  has  been  great  activity  in 
disseminating  information    amongst  the    farmers. 


34        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

The  results  have  been  gratifying.  Not  only  have 
farmers  learned  more,  but  there  has  been  a  general 
uplift  in  the  tone  of  many  rural  communities. 
But  the  discouraging  fact  is,  that  the  young  people 
do  not  often  come  to  the  farmers'  meetings  in 
any  numbers.  There  will  be  a  constantly  recurring 
crop  of  ignorance  and  prejudice.  Each  crop,  to 
be  sure,  must  be  above  its  predecessor,  but  yet  not 
living  up  to  the  full  stature  of  its  opportunities. 
It  is  therefore  necessary  to  begin  with  the  new 
generation — to  begin  our  chimney  at  the  bottom, 
rather  than  at  the  top.  People  crowd  into  the 
cities  largely  because  of  the  intellectual  entertain- 
ment that  they  find  there.  If  their  own 
intellectual  horizon  is  enlarged,  they  may  find 
entertainment  in  the  country. 

The  teacher,  the  clergyman,  the  progressive 
merchant  or  farmer  here  and  there,  are  the  persons 
that  are  willing  to  help  along  the  work  of  uplifting 
the  rural  communities.  Education  is  the  only 
salvation  for  the  farmer — not  the  development  of 
facts  merely,  but  the  development  of  power 
through  the  enlargement  of  capability.  The 
results  will  come  slowly.  We  must  not  be 
impatient.  There  are  centuries  of  inertia  to  be 
overcome.  The  best  and  most  permanent  things 
are   of  slow  growth. 

Nature-study  teaching  may  seem  to  be  an  in- 
direct way  of  reaching  the  farmer ;  but  it  is  not. 
It  is  direct  because  it  strikes  at  the  very  root  of 
the  difficulty.  One  of  the  pleasantest  comments 
which   we    have    had    on    our   nature-study  work 


MEANING    OF    NATURE-STUDY     35 

came  from  a  country  teacher  who  said  that  because 
she  had  used  it  her  pupils  were  no  longer  ashamed 
of  being  farmers'  children.  If  only  that  much 
can  be  accomplished  for  each  country  child,  the 
result  will  be  enough  for  one  generation.  What 
can  be  done  for  the  country  child  can  be  done,  in 
a  different  sphere,  for  the  city  child.  Fifty  years 
hence  the  harvest  will  be  seen. 

The  nature-study  effort  sets  our  thinking  in  the 
direction  of  our  daily  doing.  It  relates  the  school- 
room to  the  life  that  the  child  is  to  lead.  It 
makes  the  common  and  familiar  affairs  seem  to 
be  worth  the  while.  Essentially,  it  is  not  an 
ideal  for  the  school  any  more  than  it  is  for  the 
home ;  but  so  completely  do  we  delegate  all  work 
of  teaching  and  instructing  to  the  school,  that 
nature-study  effort  comes  to  be,  in  practice,  a 
school-room  subject.  I  wish  that  every  parent, 
as  well  as  every  professional  teacher,  could  see 
the  importance  of  first  instructing  the  child  in 
the  very  things  that  it  is  doing  and  the  very  objects 
that  it  is  seeing.  The  ideal  of  the  parent  or  the 
teacher  should  be  to  bring  the  child  into  sympa- 
thetic relations  with  its  world  ;  but  whatever  may 
be  in  the  mind  and  hope  of  the  teacher,  so  far  as 
the  child  is  concerned  the  nature-sympathy  must 
come  as  a  natural  effect  of  actual  observation  of 
definite  objects  and  phenomena. 

If,  in  conclusion,  I  were  asked  for  a  condensed 
statement  of  the  nature-study  idea,  I  should  choose 
the  following  definition  of  it  by  Professor  Thomas 
H.    Macbride,    of  the    University    of  Iowa:     **I 


36        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

should  say  that  by  nature-study  a  good  teacher 
means  such  study  of  the  natural  world  as  leads  to 
sympathy  with  it.  The  keynote,  in  my  opinion, 
for  all  nature-study  is  sympathy.  Such  study  in 
the  schools  is  not  botany ;  it  is  not  zoology ; 
although,  of  course,  not  contravening  either.  But 
by  nature-study  we  mean  such  a  presentation,  to 
young  people,  of  the  outside  world  that  our 
children  learn  to  love  all  nature's  forms  and  cease 
to  abuse  them.  The  study  of  natural  science 
leads,  to  be  sure,  to  these  results,  but  its  methods 
are  long  and  have  a  different  primary  object." 


IV 

THE    INTEGUMENT-MAN 

I  WROTE  a  nature-Study  leaflet  on  "  How  a 
Squash  Plant  Gets  Out  of  the  Seed/'  A  botanist 
wrote  me  that  it  were  a  pity  to  place  such  an 
error  of  statement  before  the  child :  it  should 
have  read,  "  How  the  Squash  Plant  Gets  Out  of 
the  Integument/' 

Of  course  my  friend  was  correct :  the  squash 
plant  gets  out  of  an  integument.  But  I  was 
anxious  to  teach  the  essence  of  the  squash  plant's 
behavior,  not  a  mere  verbal  fact — and  what  child 
was  ever  interested  in  an  integument  ? 

It  is  the  old  question  over  again — the  question 
of  the  point  of  view  and  what  one  is  driving  at. 
The  method  of  presentation  must  first  be  adapted 
to  the  person  to  be  instructed,  else  the  instruction 
will  be  of  little  consequence.  A  person  may  be 
so  intent  on  mere  literal  accuracy  that  he 
overlooks  the  matters  that  are  really  important  and 
even  vital. 

It  is  the  fear  of  the  Integument-Man  that  keeps 
many  a  good  teacher  from  teaching  nature-study. 
He  is  afraid  that  he  will  make  a  mistake  in 
statements  of  mere  fact.  Now,  the  person  who 
is  afraid  of  making  a  mistake  is  the  very  person 
to  trust,  because  he  will  be  careful.  Of  course 
he  will  make  mistakes — every  one  does  who  really 

(37) 


38        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

accomplishes  anything;  but  the  mistakes  will  be 
relatively  few:  he  will  at  once  admit  the  mistakes 
and  correct  them  when  they  are  discovered,  and 
the  pupils  will  catch  his  desire  for  accuracy  and 
admire  the  sincerity  of  his  purpose.  Pity  the 
man  who  has  never  made  an  error ! 

The  teacher  often  hesitates  to  teach  nature-study 
because  of  lack  of  technical  knowledge  of  the 
subject.  This  is  well  ;  but  technical  knowledge 
of  the  subject  does  not  make  a  good  teacher. 
Expert  specialists  are  so  likely  to  go  into  mere 
details  and  to  pursue  particular  subjects  so  far, 
when  teaching  beginners,  as  to  miss  the  leading 
and  emphatic  points.  They  are  so  cognizant  of 
exceptions  to  every  rule  that  they  qualify  their 
statements  until  the  statements  have  no  spirit  and 
no  force.  There  are  other  ideals  than  those  of 
mere  accuracy.  In  other  words,  it  is  more 
important  that  the  teacher  be  a  good  teacher 
than  a  good  scientist.  One  may  be  so  exact  that 
his  words  mean  nothing.  But  being  a  good 
scientist  ought  not  to  spoil  a  good  teacher. 

The  Integument-Man  sees  the  little  things. 
The  child  sees  the  big  things.  Ask  a  child  to 
describe  a  house,  or  to  draw  one. 

The  Integument-Man  teaches  details,  and  his 
teaching  is  "  dry."  The  child  wants  things  in  the 
large  ;  when  it  gets  into  the  high  school  or  college 
it  may  carry  analysis  and  dissection  to  the  limit. 

The  Integument-Man  teaches  science,  although 
it  is  not  necessarily  the  best  science.  The  child 
wants  nature. 


THE    INTEGUMENT-MAN  39 

The  Integument-Man  believes  that  any  work, 
to  be  of  value,  must  be  accurate  ;  and  accuracy  in 
nature-study  begets  accuracy  in  science,  when  the 
pupil  takes  it  up  later  on.  So  do  I.  But  the 
child  can  be  accurate  only  so  far  as  it  can 
understand  and  comprehend :  it  must  work  in  its 
own  sphere  ;  integuments  are  not  in  the  child's 
sphere. 

The  Integument-Man  is  fearful  of  every  word 
that  seems  to  imply  motive  or  direction  in  plants 
and  the  lower  animals.  "  The  roots  go  here  and 
there  in  search  of  food  ''  is  wrong  because  roots 
do  not  *'  go.'*  Seeds  do  not  **  travel.''  Plants 
do  not  "prepare"  for  winter.  I  wonder,  then, 
whether  water  "runs"  or  winds  "blow."  This 
mere  verbal  accuracy  forgets  that  words  are  only 
metaphors  and  parables,  their  significance  deter- 
mined by  custom,  and  that  the  essential  truth  is 
what  we  should  search  for — expressing  it,  when 
found,  in  language  that  is  alive,  unmistakable, 
and  conformed  to  best  usage. 

The  Integument-Man  insists  on  "methods." 
The  other  day  a  young  man  wanted  me  to 
recommend  him  as  a  teacher  of  one  of  the 
sciences  in  a  public  school.  He  explained  that 
he  had  had  a  complete  course  in  this  and  in  that; 
he  could  teach  the  whole  subject  as  laid  down  in 
the  books ;  he  knew  the  methods.  It  was  evident 
that  he  was  well  drilled.  He  had  acquired  a 
fund  of  well-digested  but  unrelated  facts.  These 
facts  were  carefully  assorted  and  ticketed,  and 
tucked    away    in    his    mental    cupboard    as    em- 


40        THE   NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

broidered  napkins  are  laid  away  in  a  drawer. 
Poor  fellow!  Mere  details  have  little  educative 
value.  An  imperfect  method  that  is  adapted  to 
one's  use  is  better  than  a  perfect  one  that  cannot 
be  used.  Some  school  laboratories  are  so  perfect 
that  they  discourage  the  pupil  in  taking  up  in- 
vestigations when  thrown  on  his  own  resources. 
Imperfect  equipment  often  encourages  ingenuity 
and  originality.  A  good  teacher  is  better  than 
all  the  laboratories  and  apparatus. 

I  like  the  man  who  has  had  an  incomplete 
course.  A  partial  view,  if  truthful,  is  worth  more 
than  a  complete  course,  if  lifeless.  If  the  man 
has  acquired  a  power  for  work,  a  capability  for 
initiative  and  investigation,  an  enthusiasm  for  the 
daily  life,  his  incompleteness  is  his  strength. 
How  much  there  is  before  him !  How  eager  his 
eye !  How  enthusiastic  his  temper !  He  is  a 
man  with  a  point  of  view,  not  a  man  with  mere 
facts.  This  man  will  see  first  the  large  and  signi- 
ficant events;  he  will  grasp  relationships;  he  will 
correlate;  later,  he  will  consider  the  details.  He 
will  study  the  plant  before  he  studies  the  leaf  or 
germination  or  the  cell.  He  will  discover  the 
bobolink  before  he  looks  for  its  toes.  He  will 
care  little  for  mere  "  methods." 

The  Integument-Man  is  afraid  that  this  popular 
nature-study  will  undermine  and  discourage  the 
teaching  of  science.  Needless  to  say,  the  fear  is 
absurdly  groundless.  Science-teaching  is  a  part 
of  the  very  fabric  of  our  civilization.  All  our 
goings  and  our  comings  are  adjusted  to  it.     No 


THE    INTEGUMENT-MAN  41 

sane  man  wishes  to  cheapen  or  discourage  the 
teaching  of  science.  Nature-study  is  not  opposed 
to  it.  Nature-study  prepares  the  child  to  receive 
the  science-teaching.  Gradually,  as  the  child 
matures,  nature-study  may  grow  into  science- 
learning  if  the  child  so  elect.  Science-teaching 
has  more  to  fear  from  desiccated  science-teaching 
than  it  has  from  nature-study.  Everything  that 
is  true  and  worth  the  while  will  endure. 

All  youths  love  nature.  None  of  them, 
primarily,  loves  science.  They  are  interested  in 
the  things  that  they  see.  By  and  by  they  begin 
to  arrange  their  knowledge  and  impressions  of 
these  things,  and  thereby  to  pursue  a  science. 
The  idea  of  the  science  should  come  late  in  the 
educational  development  of  the  youth,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  science  is  only  a  human  way 
of  looking  at  a  subject.  There  is  no  natural 
science,  but  there  has  arisen  a  science  of  natural 
things.  At  first  the  interest  in  nature  is  an  affair 
of  the  heart,  and  this  attitude  should  never  K 
stifled,  much  less  eliminated.  When  the  interest 
passes  from  the  heart  to  the  head  nature-love  has 
given  way  to  science.  Fortunately,  it  can  always 
remain  an  aflfair  of  the  heart  with  a  most  perfect 
engraftment  of  the  head,  but  the  teaching  of 
facts  alone  tends  to  divorce  the  two.  When  we 
begin  the  teaching  of  the  youth  by  the  teaching 
of  a  science  we  are  inverting  the  natural  order. 
A  rigidly  graded  and  systematic  body  of  facts 
kills  nature-study ;  examinations  bury  it. 

Then    teach!      If  you    love   nature   and    have 


42        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

living  and  accurate  knowledge  of  some  small 
part  of  it,  teach!  Your  reputation  is  not  to  be 
made  as  a  geologist  or  zoologist  or  botanist,  but 
as  a  teacher.  When  beginning  to  teach  birds, 
think  more  of  the  pupil  than  of  ornithology. 
The  pupil's  mind  and  sympathies  are  to  be 
expanded:  the  science  of  ornithology  is  not  to 
be  extended.  Remember  that  spirit  is  more 
important  than  information.  The  teacher  who 
thinks  first  of  his  subject  teaches  science;  he 
who  thinks  first  of  his  pupil  teaches  nature-study. 
With  your  whole  heart,  teach ! 

Do  not  be  afraid  of  the  Integument-Man. 


NATURE-STUDY    WITH    PLANTS 

Any  one  who  has  listened  to  discussions  in  the 
'recent  meetings  of  teachers  and  scientists  must 
have  been  impressed  with  the  great  prominence 
which  is  given  to  nature-study.  The  nature-study 
movement  is  now,  perhaps,  the  most  conspicuous 
new  feature  in  educational  ideals  in  the  sec- 
ondary and  primary  schools.  All  the  so-called 
natural  sciences  are  contributing  to  the  movement. 
The  methods  in  plant-study,  however,  show  a 
distinct  development  in  pedagogical  ideas  which 
it  may  be  well  to  recapitulate.  One  can  make 
out  four  fairly  well  marked  epochal  ideals  in  the 
teaching  of  plant  subjects. 

First,  was  the  eiffbrt  to  know  the  names  of 
plants  and  to  classify  the  kinds.  This  was  a  direct 
reflection  of  the  systematic  or  classificatory  studies 
of  the  botanists.  The  external  world  had  been 
unknown  as  to  its  details,  and  botanists  necessarily 
attempted  inventories  of  the  plant  kingdom. 
Plants  must  be  collected  and  named.  From  this 
impulse  arose  the  herbarium  collecting,  a  method 
of  teaching  which  was  so  thoroughly  impressed 
into  school  methods  a  generation  or  two  ago  that 
it  is  still  a  troublesome  factor  in  many  places. 

The  second  stage  in  plant-study  in  the  American 

(43) 


44        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

schools  was  the  desire  to  know  the  names  of  the 
parts  of  plants.  It  came  with  the  excellent  text- 
books of  Asa  Gray  and  others,  in  which  the 
results  of  studies  in  morphology  and  physiology 
and  histology  were  codified  and  defined.  These 
books  were  nearly  as  rigid  in  their  systems  and 
methods  as  text-books  of  physics  ;  and  the  pupil 
recited  mostly  from  the  book,  with  perhaps  some 
accessory  observation  on  plants. 

The  third  epoch  is  that  of  training  for  inde- 
pendent investigation.  In  very  recent  times,  and 
chiefly  since  the  death  of  Gray  nearly  two  decades 
ago,  the  German  laboratory  methods  have  been 
widely  copied  in  America  by  the  many  young  and 
brilliant  botanists  who  have  studied  abroad.  As  a 
result  there  are  many  high  schools  which  are 
equipped  with  microscopes  and  apparatus  that 
would  have  done  credit  to  a  college  or  university 
twenty-five  years  ago.  The  laboratory  method  is 
a  distinct  advance  on  the  preceding  methods  of 
teaching  in  the  fact  that  the  pupil  actually  studies 
plants ;  but  its  motive  and  point  of  view  are 
distinctly  wrong  for  the  elementary  school  from 
the  fact  that  it  attempts  primarily  to  teach  botany 
rather  than  to  educate  the  pupil.  The  field  of 
view  is  also  very  narrow,  and  the  pupiFs  mind  is 
likely  to  be  closed  to  nature  and  restricted  in  its 
range.  The  stage  of  the  microscope  and  the  tables 
of  the  laboratory  are  poor  and  narrow  ranges  for 
the  young  mind  when  there  are  fields  and  gardens 
adjacent.  The  German  laboratory  method  is  no 
doubt  ideal  for  the  teaching  of  botany  to  investi- 


NATURE-STUDY    WITH    PLANTS    45 

gators  and  specialists,  but  it  lacks  the  inspiration 
and  the  educative  im*^ulse  which  young  minds 
need. 

The  fourth  epoch  is  marked  by  the  effort  to 
know  the  plant  as  a  complete  organism  living  its 
own  life  in  a  natural  way.  It  is  marked  by  a 
new  and  vital  plant  physiology.  In  the  beginning 
of  this  epoch  we  are  now  living. 

The  pupil  should  come  to  the  study  of  plants 
and  animals  with  little  more  than  his  natural  and 
native  powers.  Study  with  the  compound  micro- 
scope is  a  specialization  to  be  made  when  the 
pupil  has  had  experience  and  when  his  judgment 
and  sense  of  relationships  are  trained. 

A  difficulty  in  the  teaching  of  plants  is  to  deter- 
mine what  are  the  most  profitable  topics  for 
consideration.  The  trouble  with  much  of  the 
teaching  is  that  it  attempts  to  go  too  far  and  the 
subjects  have  no  vital  connection  with  the  pupil's 
life.  Good  botanical  teaching  for  the  young  is 
replete  with  human  interest.  It  is  connected-with 
the  common  associations. 

Plants  always  should  be  taught  by  the  ''  labora- 
tory method'':  that  is,  the  pupil  should  work  out 
the  subjects  directly  from  the  specimens  themselves  ; 
but  I  should  want  it  undefstood  that  the  best 
"laboratory"  may  be  the  field. 

Specimens  mean  more  to  the  pupil  when  he 
collects  them.  No  matter  how  commonplace  the 
subject,  a  specimen  will  vivify  it  and  fix  it  in  the 
pupil's  mind.  A  living,  growing  plant  is  worth  a 
score  of  herbarium  specimens. 


46        THE   NATURE-STUDY   IDEA 

In  the  secondary  schools  botany  should  be  taught 
for  the  purpose  of  bringing  the  pupil  closer  to  the 
world  with  which  he  lives,  of  widening  his 
horizon,  of  intensifying  his  hold  on  life.  It  should 
begin  with  familiar  plant  forms  and  phenomena. 
It  should  be  related  to  the  experiences  of  the 
daily  life.  It  should  not  be  taught  for  the  purpose 
of  making  the  pupil  a  specialist :  that  effort  should 
be  retained  for  the  few  who  develop  a  taste  for 
special  knowledge.  It  is  often  said  that  the  high 
school  pupil  should  begin  the  study  of  botany 
with  the  lowest  and  simplest  forms  of  life.  This 
is  wrong.  The  microscope  is  not  an  introduction 
to  nature.  It  is  said  that  the  physiology  of  plants 
can  be  best  understood  by  beginning  with  the 
lower  forms.  This  may  be  true:  but  the  cus- 
tomary technical  plant  physiology  is  not  a  subject 
for  the  beginner.  Other  subjects  are  more  impor- 
tant. The  youth  is  by  nature  a  generalist.  He 
should  not  be  forced  to  be  a  specialist. 

Just  what  kind  of  plant  or  animal  subjects 
should  be  taught  must  depend  ( i )  on  the  desires 
and  capabilities  of  the  teacher;  (2)  on  the  place 
in  which  the  school  is — whether  city  or  country. 
North  or  South,  prairie  or  mountain — for  it  is 
important  that  the  subject  be  common  and  have 
relation  to  the  lives  of  the  pupils;  (3)  on  the 
desires  of  the  pupils,  particularly  if  they  are  to  do 
the  collecting ;   (4)  on  the  time  of  the  year. 

Whenever  possible,  let  the  pupil  first  come  into 
cognizance  of  the  plant  as  a  whole.  It  is  well  to 
choose  one  species  of  plant  that  is  common  and 


NATURE-STUDY    WITH    PLANTS    47 

familiar,  then  endeavor  to  determine  where  it 
grows,  why  it  grows  there,  how  it  is  modified  in 
different  circumstances.  If  it  is  a  dandelion,  one 
lesson  may  be  devoted  to  dandelions  in  the  school- 
yard ;  another  to  dandelions  in  the  meadow ; 
another  to  dandelions  along  hard  and  dry  roadsides  ; 
another  to  dandelions  in  rich  farmyards  and 
gardens  ;  another  to  dandelions  in  the  borders  of 
woodlands.  Compare  the  relative  abundance  of 
dandelions  in  these  different  places :  why  ?  Do 
the  plants  "look''  the  same  in  these  different 
places  :  how  differ  and  why  ?  (Note  the  size  and 
form  of  plants,  relative  number  of  leaves,  form 
and  size  of  leaves,  root  habit,  abundance  of  bloom, 
length  of  flower  stems.) 

Having  known  one  kind  of  common  plant,  the 
pupil  may  well  study  plant  societies — how  plants 
live  together,  and  why.  Every  distinct  or  separate 
area  has  its  own  plant  society.  There  is  one 
association  for  the  hard-tramped  dooryard — knot- 
weed  and  broad-leaved  plantain  with  interspersed 
grass  and  dandelions ;  one  for  the  fence-row — 
briers  and  choke-cherries  and  hiding  weeds  ;  one 
for  the  dry  open  field — wire-grass  and  mullein  and 
scattered  docks;  one  for  the  slattern  roadside — 
sweet  clover  and  ragweed  and  burdock  ;  one  for 
the  meadow  swale — smartweed  and  pitchforks ; 
one  for  the  barnyard— rank  pigweeds  and  sprawling 
barn-grass ;  one  for  the  dripping  rock-cliff— delicate 
bluebells  and  hanging  ferns  and  grasses.  Indefi- 
nitely might  these  categories  be  extended.  We  all 
know  the  plant  societies,  but  we  have  not  thought 


48         THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

of  them.  In  every  plant  society  there  is  one 
dominant  note.  It  is  the  individuality  of  one 
kind  of  plant  which  grov^^s  most  abundantly  or 
overtops  the  others.  Certain  plant-forms  come 
to  mind  when  one  thinks  of  willows,  others  when 
he  thinks  of  an  apple  orchard,  still  others  when  he 
thinks  of  a  beech  forest.  The  farmer  may  associate 
"  pussly "  with  cabbages  and  beets,  but  not  with 
wheat  and  oats.  He  associates  cockle  with  wheat, 
but  not  with  oats  or  corn.  We  all  associate 
dandelions  with  grassy  areas,  but  not  with  burdocks 
or  forests.  It  is  impossible  to  open  one's  eyes  out- 
of-doors  outside  the  paved  streets  of  cities  without 
seeing  a  plant  society.  A  lawn  is  a  plant  society. 
It  may  contain  only  grass,  or  it  may  contain  weeds 
hidden  away  in  the  sward.  What  weeds  remain 
in  the  lawn?  Only  those  which  can  withstand 
the  mowing.  What  are  they  ?  Let  a  bit  of  lawn 
grow  as  it  will  for  a  month  and  see  what  there  is 
in  it.  A  swale,  a  dry  hillside,  a  forest  of  beech,  a 
forest  of  oak,  a  forest  of  hemlock  or  pine,  a 
weedy  yard,  a  tangled  fence-row,  a  brook-side, 
a  deep  quiet  swamp,  a  lake  shore,  a  railroad,  a 
river  bank,  a  meadow,  a  pasture,  a  dusty  roadway — 
each  has  its  characteristic  plants.  Even  in  the 
winter  one  may  find  these  societies — the  tall  plants 
still  asserting  themselves,  others  of  less  aspiring 
stature,  and  others  snuggling  just  under  the  snow. 
Later,  special  attributes  or  forms  of  plants  may 
be  considered — forms  of  stems,  bark,  ways  of 
branching,  root  forms,  leaf  forms,  position  and 
size  of  leaves  with  reference  to  light,  flower  forms. 


NATURE-STUDY    WITH    PLANTS    49 

falling  of  the  leaves,  germination,  seed  dispersal, 
pollination  (for  older  pupils),  injuries  of  various 
kinds  (as  by  snow,  ice,  wind,  sun-scalding,  drought, 
insects,  fungi,  browsing  by  cattle) ,  simple  physio- 
logical experiments.  In  winter,  studies  may  be 
made  of  the  forms  of  trees  and  bushes  and 
of  persisting  weeds,  leaf-buds  and  fruit-buds,  bark 
forms,  preparation  for  spring,  tubers  and  bulbs, 
seed-sowing  and  germination,  struggle  for  existence 
in  the  tree-top,  evergreens  and  how  they  shed 
their  leaves,  how  the  different  kinds  of  trees  hold 
the  snow,  where  the  herbs  and  tender  things  are, 
cones  and  seed  pods,  apples  and  turnips  and  other 
things  from  the  cellar,  knots  and  knot-holes,  how 
vines  hold  to  their  supports,  and  others.  These 
subjects  are  intended  only  as  the  merest  suggestions 
of  the  kind  of  work  that  may  be  taken  up  with 
profit.  As  far  as  possible,  the  study  of  form  and 
function  should  go  together.  Correlate  what  a 
part  b  with  what  it  does.  What  is  this  part  ? 
What  is  its  office,  or  how  did  it  come  to  be  ?  It 
were  a  pity  to  teach  phyllotaxy  without  teaching 
light-rdation :  it  were  an  equal  pity  to  teach 
light-relation  without  teaching  phyllotaxy. 

The/e  are  those  who  discourage  the  teaching 
of  plant  societies  until  the  pupil  is  well  grounded 
in  *' physiology  "  ;  but  this,  again,  is  the  science- 
teaching  point  of  view— and  it  may  be  the  correct 
point  of  view  for  college  work.  Of  course  the 
child  cannot  understand  the  fundamental  reasons 
for  plant  association — I  wonder  whether  the 
botanist  does  ?— but  the  child  can  comprehend  the 


50        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

phenomena,  and  he  will    be  interested    in  them 
because    they  are    so    intimately  associated    with 

his  life. 

There  are  those,  again,  who  say  that  such 
subjects  as  those  suggested  above  do  not  prepare 
the  pupil  to  enter  college.  My  reply  is  that  the 
elementary  schools  do  not  exist  for  the  sake  of 
the  college  or  the  university.  Those  that  are  to 
enter  college  are  a  small  and  special  class,  and 
they  may  receive  special  instruction. 


VI 


THE     GROWING     OF     PLANTS     BY     CHILDREN— THE 

SCHOOL-GARDEN 

Actually  to  grow  a  plant  is  to  come  into 
intimate  contact  with  a  specific  bit  of  nature. 
The  numbers  of  plants  that  we  grow,  and  also 
the  kinds  of  them,  increase  with  every  generation. 
The  intensity  of  our  plant-growing,  as  well  as  the 
increasing  care  for  animals,  is  coming  to  be  a 
measure  of  our  interest  in  the  world  about  us. 

Not  only  has  the  cultivation  of  plants  itself 
increased  our  contact  with  plants  and  with  nature, 
but,  in  connection  with  the  growth  of  the  spirit 
of  art,  of  sport  and  of  suburbanism,  it  has  taken 
us  afield  and  has  impelled  us  to  know  things  as 
they  are  and  as  they  grow.  All  this  great  interest 
in  nature  is  reacting  profoundly  on  the  natural 
sciences  in  making  them  more  vital  and  increasing 
their  application  to  the  daily  life.  With  all  its 
progressiveness,  science  is  yet  conservative. 
The  modern  popularization  of  plant-knowledge  is 
probably  due  quite  as  much  to  these  agencies  as 
to  the  progress  of  botany  itself. 

There  are  many  practical  applications  to  the 
lives  of  children  and  to  the  home  that  can  be 
made  from  a  knowledge  of  plants  and  horticulture. 
This  knowledge  means  more  than  a  mere  know- 

(51) 


52        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

ledge  of  plants  themselves.  It  takes  one  into  the 
open  air.  It  enlarges  his  horizon.  It  brings  him 
into  contact  with  living  things.  It  increases  his 
hold  on  life.  All  these  facts  were  well  understood 
by  Froebel,  Pestalozzi  and  other  educational 
reformers.  It  is  important  that  one  does  not 
assume  too  much  when  beginning  plant-work 
with  children.  We  forget  that  things  which  fail 
to  appeal  to  us,  because  of  our  busy  lives  and 
great  experience,  may  nevertheless  mean  very 
much  to  the  child.  Often  we  attempt  to  teach 
the  child  so  much  that  it  is  confused  and  nothing 
makes  an  impression.  An  interest  in  one  simple, 
living  problem  that  is  near  to  the  child's  life  is 
worth  a  whole  book  of  facts  without  nature. 

It  is  not  primarily  important  that  children  know 
the  names,  although  the  name  is  an  introduction 
to  a  plant  as  it  is  to  a  person.  The  essential  thing 
is  that  there  should  be  plants  about  the  home,  or 
in  the  school  grounds,  or  in  the  schoolhouse 
windows.  Even  though  the  children  are  not 
conscious  that  they  are  receiving  any  impression 
from  these  plants,  nevertheless  the  very  presence 
of  them  has  an  influence  which  will  be  felt  in 
later  life,  even  as  the  presence  of  good  literature 
and  furniture  and  the  association  of  refined 
surroundings  have  influence  on  the  life  of  the 
individual. 

I  dropped  a  seed  into  the  earth.      It  grew, 

and  the  plant  was  mine. 

It  was  a  wonderful    thing,   this    plant    of 

mine.      I   did  not    know  its  name,  and    the 


THE    SCHOOL-GARDEN  53 

plant  did  not  bloom.  All  I  know  is  that  I 
planted  something  apparently  as  lifeless  as 
a  grain  of  sand  and  there  came  forth  a 
green  and  living  thing  unlike  the  seed,  unlike 
the  soil  in  which  it  stood,  unlike  the  air 
into  which  it  grew.  No  one  could  tell  me 
why  it  grew,  nor  how.  It  had  secrets  all 
its  own,  secrets  that  baffle  the  wisest  men ; 
yet  this  plant  was  my  friend.  It  faded 
when  I  withheld  the  light,  it  wilted  when  I 
neglected  to  give  it  water,  it  flourished  when  I 
supplied  its  simple  needs.  One  week  I  went 
away  on  a  vacation,  and  when  I  returned  the 
plant  was  dead  ;  and  I  missed  it. 

Although  my  little  plant  had  died  so  soon, 
it  had  taught  me  a  lesson  ;   and  the  lesson  is 
that  it  is  worth  while  to  have  a  plant. 
Have  some  little  means  of  growing  plants,  not 
only  to    teach   how    to    grow    plants  themselves, 
but  to  teach  the  child  the  care  of  things,  to  show 
that  other  beings  besides  itself  have  vicissitudes  and 
lives  of  their  own,  and  to  implant  the  germ  of 
altruism — the    interest    in   something    outside    of 
oneself.      These  means  of  growing  plants  should 
be  simple.      A  pot,  a   box  or  a  hotbed    may  be 
sufficient.      Every  child  should  have  the  handling 
of  at  least  one  plant  during  the  period   of  child- 
hood.     One    plant    cannot    be    handled    without 
leaving  an  impress  on  the  life. 

The  love  of  plants  must  be  inculcated  in  the 
school.  In  nearly  every  school  it  is  possible  to 
have  a  few  plants  in  the  window.     They  may  not 


54        THE   NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

thrive,  but  it  is  worth  while  to  set  the  children  to 
inquiring  why  they  do  not.  Sometimes  the 
poorest  plants  awaken  the  most  effort  and  inquiry. 
If  nothing  else  will  thrive,  a  beet  will.  Secure  a 
good  fresh  beet  from  the  cellar.  Plant  it  in  a  box 
or  tin  can.  Surprisingly  quick  it  will  throw  out 
clean  bright  leaves.  The  thick  root  will  hold 
moisture  from  Friday  to  Monday. 

A  desire  for  school-gardens  is  gradually  taking 
shape.  This  movement  must  grow  and  ripen;  it 
cannot  be  perfected  in  a  day.  We  must  be  patient 
and  persistent.  For  a  century  there  have  been  few 
school-gardens  :  we  must  not  expect  to  overcome 
the  custom  in  a  day.  The  movement  has  not 
been  aided  much,  if  at  all,  by  those  who  have 
"complete''  schemes  for  gardens  for  the  district 
schools.  Such  schemes  may  be  talked  about  later. 
For  the  present,  start  the  work  by  suggesting  that 
the  school-grounds  be  cleaned  or  "  slicked  up.'' 
Take  one  step  at  a  time.  The  propaganda  for 
school-gardens  must  have  relation  to  the  economic 
and  social  conditions  under  which  the  school 
exists.  There  is  some  confusion  as  to  the  objects 
of  school-ground  improvement.  The  purposes 
may  be  analyzed  as  follows : 

(i)  Ornamenting  the  grounds,  comprising 
{a)  cleaning  and  tidying  them,  {b)  securing 
a  lawn,  {c)  planting.  This  is  always  the 
first  thing  to  be  done.  It  stands  for  ideals  of 
thrift,  cleanliness,  comfort,  beauty,  progres- 
siveness. 


THE    SCHOOL-GARDEN  S5 

(2)  Establishing  a  collection  to  supply 
material  for  nature-study  and  class  work. 

(3)  Making  a  garden  for  the  purpose  of 
(a)  supplying  material  (as  in  No.  2,)  (i) 
affording  manual  training,  object  lessons  and 
instruction  in  plant-growing,  {c)  teaching 
agriculture  and  horticulture. 

These  categories  are  referable  to  two  main 
ideas  in  school-gardening  :  ( i )  The  improvement 
or  adornment  of  the  grounds;  (2)  the  making  of 
distinct  gardens  for  purposes  of  direct  instruction, 
or  school-gardening  proper.  Much  of  the  current 
discussion  does  not  distinguish  these  two  ideals, 
and  thereby  arises  some  of  the  loss  of  effort  and 
effectiveness  in  the  movement. 

The  first  category — the  improvement  of  the 
premises — is  of  universal  application.  Every 
school-ground  can  be  picked  up,  slicked  up  and 
made  fit  for  children  to  see.  There  are  three 
stages  or  epochs  in  the  improvement  of  any 
ground :  Cleaning  up ;  grading  and  seeding  ; 
planting. 

To  improve  the  school-grounds  should  be  a 
matter  of  neighborhood  pride.  It  is  an  expression 
of  the  people's  interest  in  the  things  that  are  the 
people's.  We  are  ashamed  when  our  homes  are 
not  fit  and  attractive  for  children  to  live  in.  But 
who  cares  if  at  the  school  the  fence  is  tumble- 
down, the  wood  or  coal  scattered  over  the  yard, 
the  clapboards  loose,  the  chimneys  awry,  the  trees 
broken,  the  outhouses  sagged  and  yawning  ? 


56        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  arouse  the  public 
conscience.  Begin  with  the  children.  As  soon 
as  they  are  directed  to  see  the  conditions  they  will 
believe  what  they  see.  They  are  not  prejudiced. 
They  will  talk  about  it :  teacher,  mother,  father 
will  hear. 

The  next  thing  to  do  is  to  "  clean  up."  Do  not 
begin  with  any  ideal  plan  of  landscape-gardening 
improvement  to  be  carried  out  at  once — not  unless 
some  one  person  is  willing  to  do  all  the  work  and 
bear  all  the  expense  out  of  his  public  spirit ;  and 
even  this  would  be  unfortunate,  because  most 
of  the  value  in  improving  a  ground  is  to  interest 
the  children  in  the  work.  Get  the  children 
enthusiastic — it  is  easy  to  do — in  removing  stones 
and  litter  and  rubbish,  in  filling  the  holes,  piling 
the  wood,  raking  the  grounds.  If  one  school 
year  were  required  to  accomplish  this  work  alone 
it  would  be  time  well  used.  Children  and  teachers 
have  many  interests.  We  are  likely  to  expect  too 
much  of  them. 

The  cleaning  up  once  done,  and  the  civic  pride 
once  aroused  to  the  pitch  of  keeping  it  done,  the 
next  thing  to  do  is  to  make  a  base  or  foundation 
upon  which  all  the  gardening  or  planting  features 
are  to  stand :  the  land  must  be  graded.  In  some 
cases  the  soil  must  be  removed  and  new  soil  put 
in  its  place,  for  the  soil  about  a  schoolhouse  is 
very  likely  to  be  poor  sand  or  clay,  or  a  mixture 
with  building  material  and  other  rubbish;  but  in 
general  this  labor  will  not  be  necessary  if  only  a 
lawn   and   ornamental   planting    are    desired.       In 


THE    SCHOOL-GARDEN  57 

some  instances  a  lawn  is  impracticable,  but  a  good 
and  even  earth  surface  should  always  be  secured. 
The  early  spring  is  the  season  in  which  to  do  all 
this  shaping  and  seeding  of  the  land.     The  spring 
fever  is  on  and  enthusiasm  is  new-born.      If  the 
school    is    in    the    country,  the    farmers    can    be 
interested  to  do  the  heavy  work.      If  the  subject 
has  been   well   discussed   in   the   school    for  some 
weeks   or   months,  it    should    not    be    difficult    to 
organize  the  farmers  into  a  "bee''  to   grade,  till 
and  seed  the  ground.      There  is  always  at  least  one 
energetic  man  in  the  community  who  is  ready  to 
take  the  lead  in   such  movements  as  this.      Much 
of  the  value  of  improving   the  school-ground  lies 
in  the  arousing  of  public  interest  in  public  questions. 
The    next    year,    plant.      Let     the    matter    be 
discussed  in   school.     Ask  the   children   to  make 
plans.       When    the    time    is    ready,    choose    the 
simplest  plan  that  seems  to  fulfil  the  requirements. 
Remember  that  during  a  large  part  of  the  year 
the  school-ground  will  be  practically  without  care. 
The  planting  must  be  able  to  maintain  itself,  if 
necessary.      Leave  the  centers  open.      Throw  the 
planting  mostly  to  the  borders  or  margins.      Avoid 
all  elaborate  designs  in  bedding.      Be  careful  not 
to   have  scattered   effects  in  planting.      Have  the 
planting  as  little  and  as  simple  as  possible  and  yet 
accomplish  the  desired  results.    Leave  ample  space 
for  playgrounds.       Cover  the  out-buildings  with 
vines,    and    screen    them   with    bushes    and    trees. 
Use  chiefly  of  hardy  and    well-known    trees  and 
shrubs    and     herbs.      Aim    to    have    the    ground 


58         THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

interesting  because  it  appeals  to  the  onlooker  as  a 
picture  as  a  whole  and  not  as  a  collection  of 
plants. 

The  real  school-garden  is  a  different  idea  from 
all  this.  The  school-garden  is  for  purposes  of 
direct  instruction.  It  is  an  outdoor  laboratory. 
It  is  a  part  of  the  school  equipment,  as  books, 
blackboards,  charts  and  apparatus  are.  The  real 
school-garden  is  not  adapted  to  all  schools  ;  or,  to 
speak  more  correctly,  not  all  schools  are  yet  adapted 
to  the  school-garden,  any  more  than  they  are  all 
adapted  to  an  equipment  in  physics  or  chemistry. 
All  grounds  can  be  improved  and  embellished  ;  we 
shall  be  glad  when  all  schools  will  also  have  a 
school-garden.  The  improvement  of  the  grounds 
is  the  first  consideration :  that  is  primarily  a 
question  of  civic  pride.  The  making  of  a  definite 
garden  is  an  epoch  in  the  life  of  each  school :  it 
marks  the  progress  of  the  school  in  pedagogical 
ideals. 

The  school-garden  should  have  a  special  area  set 
aside  for  it,  as  any  other  garden  or  laboratory  has. 
Its  prime  motive  is  not  to  be  ornamental,  but  to  be 
useful.  The  ground  should  be  "  good, ''  well 
prepared,  well  tilled.  The  garden  should  be  a 
good  garden,  if  it  is  to  do  its  best  work. 

Just  now  there  is  much  interest  in  school- 
gardening  in  the  United  States.  This  interest  is 
the  beginning  of  a  new  movement  which  will  take 
the  pupil  out-of-doors  and  to  nature,  and  will 
relate  his  school  life  to  his  real  life.  The  primary 
effort  should  be  to  arouse  the  public  conscience 


THE    SCHOOL-GARDEN  59 

to  the  importance  of  caring  for  the  school  premises 
and  to  the  necessity  of  bringing  the  child  into 
sympathy  with  its  environment.  Then,  here  and 
there,  the  school-garden,  for  purposes  of  definite 
instruction,  will  be  instituted.  In  the  country 
districts  the  school-garden  will  come  slowly,  because 
gardens  are  so  common  as  to  lose  their  interest,  and 
because  the  rural  schools  are  often  small  and  weak. 
Higher  ideals  of  agriculture  at  home,  nature-study 
in  the  school,  consolidation  of  weak  districts — these 
are  the  means  that  will  bring  the  real  school-garden 
to  the  rural  school. 

But  there  is  a  broader  significance  to  the  growing 
of  plants  than  that  associated  with  mere  gardening 
or  with  the  furnishing  of  schoolroom  material 
alone.  There  are  national  aspects.  Children  in 
the  home  and  school  should  be  interested  in  horti- 
culture and  agriculture  as  a  means  of  introduction 
to  nature.  Farming  introduces  the  human  element 
into  nature  and  thereby  makes  it  more  vivid  in 
the  child's  mind.  More  than  half  the  people  of 
the  United  States  live  outside  the  cities.  More 
people  are  engaged  in  farming  than  in  any  other 
single  occupation.  The  children  in  the  schools 
are  taught  much  about  the  cities,  but  little  about 
the  farming  country.  The  child  should  be  taught 
something  from  the  farmer's  point  of  view.  This 
will  broaden  the  child's  horizon  and  quicken  his 
sympathies.  Every  person  is  now  supposed  to 
know  something  of  the  country.  He  will  spend 
part  of  his  vacations  therein.  The  more  knowl- 
edge he  has  of  farming  methods  the  more  these 


6o        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

vacations  will  mean.  It  is  not  necessary,  and 
perhaps  not  even  important,  that  the  child  be 
taught  these  things  with  the  idea  of  making  him 
a  farmer,  but  merely  as  a  means  of  education  and 
of  interest  to  him  in  the  out-of-doors.  The  day  is 
coming  when  agriculture — under  other  names, 
perhaps,  and  not  as  a  professional  subject — will  be 
taught  in  public  schools  as  a  **  culture  study." 

There  must  be  a  greater  interest  in  parks  and 
public  gardens.  These  institutions  have  now 
come  to  be  a  part  of  our  civic  life.  They  no 
longer  need  apology.  We  build  parks  in  the 
same  spirit  that  we  build  good  streets  and  make 
sanitary  improvements;  but  the  park  should  be 
more  than  a  mere  display  of  gardening.  It 
should  have  an  intimate  relation  with  the  lives 
of  the  people.  The  greater  the  number  of 
parks  the  better  for  the  children.  All  parks 
should  be  open  to  nature-study  teachers,  at  least 
on  certain  days.  There  should  also  be  children's 
days  in  the  parks.  In  some  places  the  park  can 
grow  specimens  for  the  school.  In  large  cities 
it  might  be  a  good  plan  to  have  some  of  the 
common  vegetables  and  farm  crops  growing  in 
small  areas  at  one  side  of  the  park.  The  ten- 
dency, perhaps,  is  to  make  our  parks  too  exotic, 
and  to  give  relatively  too  much  attention  to  mere 
roads>  statuary  and  architecture.  The  perfect 
garden,  from  the  gardener's  point  of  view,  may 
not  be  the  most  useful  one.  The  garden  should 
be  so  common  and  so  easy  to  make  as  to  become 
a  part  of  the  child-life. 


THE    SCHOOL-GARDEN  6i 

Some  of  the  specific  ways  in  which  our  out- 
look has  been  extended  by  the  growth  of  horti- 
culture—  which  is  the  growing  of  plants  —  may 
be  mentioned: 

It  has  opened  our  eyes  to  all  the  multitude 
of  flowers  and  ornamental  plants. 

It  has  increased  our  national  wealth  and 
has  opened  the  way  for  large  commercial 
industries. 

It  has  elevated  the  public  taste  so  that 
parks  and  well-kept  lawns  are  now  a  civic 
necessity. 

It  has  had  much  to  do  with  the  breadth 
and  spirit  of  the  modern  movement  that 
we  call  nature-study. 

It  has  made  plants  a  part  of  the  home,  as 
books  and  pictures  are.  Plant  collections 
stand  for  culture.  Not  only  do  they  appeal 
to  the  individual  who  has  them,  but  also  to 
a  wide  circle  of  persons,  since  they  are 
living,  growing  things  and  cannot  well  be 
hidden. 

It  has  awakened  an  intrinsic  interest  in 
natural  objects.  People  have  come  to  love 
plants.  They  like  the  plant  itself  as  well  as 
its  flowers.  They  know  that  a  plant  is 
worth  growing  merely  because  it  is  a  plant. 
They  have  come  to  feel  that  every  animal 
and  plant  lives  its  own  life.  It  has  its  battles 
to  fight.  It  contends.  Thereby  is  the  indi- 
vidual man  carried  beyond  himself. 


VII 

THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE    OF    NATURE-STUDY 

The  nature-study  idea  is  fundamental  to  the 
evolution  of  popular  education.  Therefore  it 
may  be  applied — in  fact,  must  be  applied — to  all 
branches  of  education.  It  is  bound  to  have  a 
tremendous  influence  in  carrying  a  vital  edu- 
cational impulse  to  farmers.  The  accustomed 
methods  of  education  are  less  applicable  to 
farmers  than  to  any  other  people,  and  yet  the 
farmers  are  nearly  half  our  population.  The 
greatest  of  the  unsolved  problems  of  education 
is  how  to  reach  the  farmer.  He  must  be  reached 
on  his  own  ground.  The  methods  and  the  results 
must  suit  his  needs.  The  ultimate  test  of  good 
extension  work  will  be  its  ability  to  reach  into 
the  remotest  districts. 

We  have  failed  to  reach  the  farmer  effectively 
because  we  still  persist  in  employing  old-time  and 
academic  methods.  Historically,  the  elementary 
public  school  is  a  product  of  the  university  and 
college.  "The  greatest  achievement  of  modern 
education,"  writes  W.  H.  Payne,  "is  the  grada- 
tion and  correlation  of  schools,  whereby  the 
ladder  of  learning  is  let  down  from  the  university 
to  secondary  schools,  and  from  these  to  the  schools 
of  the  people."     This  origin  of  "  the  schools  of 

(62) 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE        63 

the  people"  from  the  university  explains  why  it 
is  that  these  schools  are  so  unrelated  to  the  life  of 
the  pupil,  and  so  unreal ;  they  are  exotic  and 
unnatural.  If  any  man  were  to  find  himself  in  a 
county  wholly  devoid  of  schools  and  were  to  be 
set  the  task  of  originating  and  organizing  a  school 
system,  he  would  almost  unconsciously  introduce 
some  subjects  that  would  be  related  to  the  habits 
of  the  people  and  to  the  welfare  of  the  commu- 
nity. Being  freed  from  traditions,  he  would  teach 
something  of  the  plants  and  animals  and  fields  and 
people.  Yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  what  do  our 
rural  schools  teach? 

So  long  have  we  taught  the  text-book  routine 
that  we  do  not  seem  to  think  that  there  may  be 
other  and  better  means.  I  believe  in  the  Greek 
idea  of  education  for  culture,  but  I  would  have 
other  education  along  with  it.  I  believe  that  it 
is  possible  to  acquire  culture  at  the  same  time 
that  we  acquire  power.  Education  for  culture  alone 
tends  to  isolate  the  individual ;  education  for  sym- 
pathy with  one's  environment  tends  to  make  the 
individual  an  integral  part  of  the  activities  and 
progress  of  its  time.  At  all  events,  I  cannot  see 
why  there  is  not  as  great  possibility  for  culture  in 
the  nature-studies  as  there  is  in  the  customary 
subjects  of  the  elementary  school.  My  plea  is 
that  new  educational  methods  must  be  employed 
before  we  can  really  reach  the  farming  communities. 
Nature-study  is  to  supply  some  of  these  new 
means.  Nature-study  must  be  made  a  part  of 
the  extension-teaching  of  the  time — of  that  move- 


64        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

ment  which  takes  the  school  to  the  people  when 
the  people  will  not  go  to  the  school.  The 
educational  impulse  must  be  taken  to  every  man's 
door.  If  he  shuts  the  door,  it  must  be  thrown 
in  at  the  window. 

All  agricultural  educational  work  is  yet  in  an 
experimental  stage  in  this  country,  with  the 
single  exception  of  college  work — and  even  this 
is  likely  to  be  much  modified  within  the  next 
few  years.  Therefore,  there  are  no  perfect  or 
generally  accepted  methods  of  nature-study  as 
applied  to  rural  education;  but  sufficient  ex- 
perience has  now  accumulated  to  enable .  any 
good  teacher  to  make  a  beginning  anywhere  with 
full  assurance  of  doing  useful  and  lasting  work. 
The  direct  application  of  nature-study  to  agri- 
cultural education  appears  to  have  been  started  by 
the  Agricultural  College  of  Cornell  University. 
This  was  in  1895  ^^^  1896.  This  work  is  of  a 
true  extension  character,  being  conducted  from  the 
university  as  a  center,  by  means  of  lectures, 
publications,  correspondence,  and  the  organizing 
of  pupils  into  clubs.  It  is  advisory  and  propa- 
gandic.  Its  object  is  to  interest  teachers  and 
pupils  of  the  public  schools  in  nature-study  work 
with  special  reference  to  the  agricultural  condi- 
tions. The  first  necessity  in  the  work  proved  to 
be  the  need  of  instruction  for  the  teacher;  and 
to  meet  this  necessity  special  literature  was  pre- 
pared in  the  form  of  "nature-study  leaflets." 
These  are  designed  to  inspire  the  teacher,  to  give 
him  point  of  view,  to  send  him  directly  to  nature 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE        65 

to  verify  the  facts  and  to  extend  his  knowledge, 
to  suggest  methods  of  teaching  the  subjects. 
They  are  not  texts  from  which  recitations  are  to 
be  made.  Merely  as  an  example  of  one  set  of 
ideals  and  one  method  of  improving  the  agri- 
cultural status,  a  brief  outline  of  this  work  may 
be  given.  The  following  extract  is  from  a 
sketch  which  I  contributed  to  the  Sixth  Report 
of  Extension  Work  (Bulletin  206,  Cornell 
Experiment  Station,  October,  1902): 

"To  create  a  larger  public  sentiment  in  favor 
of  agriculture,  to  increase  the  farmer's  respect  for 
his  own  business — these  are  the  controlling  pur- 
poses in  the  general  movement  that  we  are  carry- 
ing forward  under  the  title  of  nature-study.  It 
is  not  by  teaching  agriculture  directly  that  this 
movement  can  be  started.  The  common  schools 
in  New  York  will  not  teach  agriculture  to  any 
extent  for  the  present,  and  the  movement,  if  it  is 
to  arouse  a  public  sentiment,  must  reach  beyond 
the  actual  farmers  themselves.  The  agricultural 
status  is  much  more  than  an  affair  of  mere  farm- 
ing. The  first  undertaking,  as  we  conceive  the 
problem,  is  to  awaken  an  interest  in  the  things 
with  which  the  farmer  lives  and  has  to  do,  for 
a  man  is  happy  only  when  he  is  in  sympathy 
with  his  environment.  To  teach  observation  of 
common  things,  therefore,  has  been  the  funda- 
mental means.  A  name  for  the  movement  was 
necessary.  We  did  not  wish  to  invent  a  new 
name  or  phrase,  as  it  would  require  too  much 
effort  in  explanation.     Therefore,  we  chose  the 


66        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

current  and  significant  phrase  'nature-study/ 
which,  while  it  covers  many  methods  and  prac- 
tices, stands  everywhere  for  the  opening  of  the 
mind    directly    to    the    common    phenomena    of 

nature. 

"We  have  not  tried  to  develop  a  system  of 
nature-study  nor  to  make  a  contribution  to  the 
pedagogics  of  the  subject.  We  have  merely 
endeavored,  as  best  we  could,  to  reach  a  certain 
specific  result — the  enlarging  of  the  agricultural 
horizon.  We  have  had  no  pedagogic  theories, 
or,  if  we  have,  they  have  been  modified  or  upset 
by  the  actual  conditions  that  have  presented  them- 
selves. Neither  do  we  contend  that  our  own 
methods  and  means  have  always  been  the  best. 
We  are  learning.  Yet  we  are  sure  that  the 
general  results  justify  all  the  effbrt.  In  fact,  we 
never  believed  so  fully  in  the  efficiency  of  this 
kind  of  effort  as  at  the  present  time. 

"Theoretical  pedagogic  ideals  can  be  applied 
by  the  good  teacher  who  comes  into  personal 
relations  with  the  children,  and  they  are  almost 
certain  to  work  out  well.  They  cannot  always 
be  applied,  however,  with  persons  who  are  to  be 
reached  by  means  of  correspondence  and  in  a 
great  variety  of  conditions,  and  particularly  when 
many  of  the  subjects  lie  outside  the  customary 
work  of  the  schools. 

"Likewise,  the  subjects  selected  for  our  nature- 
study  work  must  be  governed  by  conditions  and 
not  wholly  by  ideals.  We  are  sometimes  asked 
why   we    do    not   take    up    more  distinctly   agri- 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE       67 

cultural  or  economic  topics.  The  answer  is  that 
we  take  subjects  that  teachers  will  use.  We 
should  like,  for  example,  to  give  more  attention 
to  insect  subjects,  but  it  is  difficult  to  induce 
teachers  to  work  with  them.  If  distinctly  agri- 
cultural topics  alone  were  used,  the  movement 
would  have  very  little  following  and  influence. 
Moreover,  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  teach  technical 
agriculture  in  the  common  schools,  but  to  incul- 
cate the  habit  of  observing,  to  suggest  work  that 
has  distinct  application  to  the  conditions  in  which 
the  child  lives,  to  inspire  enthusiasm  for  country 
life,  to  aid  in  home-making,  and  to  encourage 
a  general  movement  toward  the  soil.  These 
matters  cannot  be  forced.  In  every  effort  by 
every  member  of  the  extension  staff,  the  better- 
ment of  agricultural  conditions  has  been  the 
guiding  impulse,  however  remote  from  that  pur- 
pose it  may  have  seemed  to  the  casual  observer. 
"We  have  found  by  long  experience  that  it 
is  unwise  to  give  too  much  condensed  subject- 
matter.  The  individual  teacher  can  give  subject- 
matter  in  detail  because  personal  knowledge  and 
enthusiasm  can  be  applied.  But  in  general  corre- 
spondence and  propagandist  work  this  cannot  be 
done.  With  the  Junior  Naturalists,  for  example, 
the  first  impulse  is  to  inspire  enthusiasm  for  some  bit 
of  work  which  we  hope  to  take  up.  This  enthusi- 
asm is  awakened  largely  by  the  organization  of 
clubs  and  by  the  personal  correspondence  that  is 
conducted  between  the  Bureau  and  these  clubs 
and  their  members.      It  is    the    desire,   however. 


68        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

to  follow  up  this  general  movement  with  in- 
struction in  definite  subject-matter  with  the 
teacher.  Therefore,  about  a  year  ago  a  course 
in  Home  Nature-study  was  formally  established 
under  the  general  direction  of  Mrs.  Mary  Rogers 
Miller.  It  was  designed  to  carry  on  the  experi- 
ment for  one  year,  in  order  to  determine  whether 
such  a  course  would  be  productive  of  good  results, 
and  to  discover  the  best  means  of  prosecuting  it. 
These  experimental  results  have  been  gratifying. 
Nearly  2,000  New  York  teachers  are  now 
regularly  enrolled  in  the  Course,  the  larger  part 
of  whom  are  outside  the  metropolitan  and  dis- 
tinctly urban  conditions.  Every  effort  is  made 
to  reach  the  rural  teacher.  Plans  are  now  mak- 
ing for  the  modification  of  this  Course,  by  means 
of  which  it  is  hoped  that  the  number  of  teachers 
receiving  definite  correspondence  instruction  will 
be  very  largely  increased.  [The  number  has  now 
reached  nearly  3,000,  February  28,  1903.] 

"In  order  that  the  work  may  reach  the 
children  it  must  be  greatly  popularized  and  the 
children  must  be  met  on  their  own  ground. 
The  complete  or  ideal  leaflet  may  have  little 
influence.  For  example,  I  prepared  a  leaflet  on 
'  A  Children's  Garden '  which  several  people 
were  kind  enough  to  praise.  However,  very  little 
direct  result  was  secured  from  the  use  of  this 
leaflet  until  *  Uncle  John '  began  to  popularize  it 
and  to  make  appeals  to  teachers  and  children  by 
means  of  personal  talks,  letters  and  circulars.  So 
far  as  possible  the  appeal  to  children  was  made  in 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE       69 

their  own  phrase.  The  movement  for  the 
children's  garden  has  now  taken  definite  shape, 
and  the  result  is  that  more  than  26,000  children 
in  New  York  State  were  raising  plants  during  the 
present  year.  Another  illustration  of  this  kind 
may  be  taken  from  the  effort  to  improve  the 
rural    school-grounds.       I     wrote    a   bulletin     on 

*  The  Improvement  of  Rural  School-Grounds,' 
but  the  tangible  results  were  very  few.  Now, 
however,  through  the  work  of  *  Uncle  John ' 
with  the  teachers  and  the  children  a  distinct 
movement  has  begun  for  the  cleaning  and 
improving  of  the  school-grounds  of  the  State. 
This   movement  is  yet  in  its  infancy,  but  more 

'than  400  school-yards  are  now  in  process  of 
renovation,  largely  through  the  efforts  of  the 
children. 

"  The  idea  of  organizing  children  into  clubs 
for  the  study  of  plants  and  animals  and  other 
outdoor  subjects,  originated,  so  far  as  our  work  is 
concerned,  with  Mr.  John  W.  Spencer,  himself 
an  actual  and  practical  farmer.      His  character  as 

*  Uncle  John '  has  done  much  to  supply  the 
personality  that  ordinarily  is  lacking  in  corre- 
spondence work,  and  an  amount  of  interest 
and  enthusiasm  has  been  developed  amongst 
the  children  which  is  surprising  to  those  who 
have  not  watched  its  progress. 

"The  problems  connected  with  the  rural 
schools  are  probably  the  most  difficult  questions  to 
solve  in  the  whole  field  of  education.  We  believe 
that  the  solution,  however,  cannot  begin  directly 


70        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

with  the  rural  schools  themselves.  It  must  begin 
in  educational  centers  and  gradually  spread  to  the 
country  districts.  We  are  making  constant  efforts 
to  reach  the  rural  schools  themselves,  and  expect 
to  exhaust  every  means  within  our  power,  but  it 
is  work  that  is  attended  with  many  inherent 
difficulties.  We  sometimes  feel  that  the  agri- 
cultural status  can  best  be  reached  through  the 
hamlet,  village  and  some  of  the  city  schools  rather 
than  by  means  of  the  red  schoolhouse  on  the 
corner.  By  appealing  to  the  school  commissioners 
in  the  rural  districts,  by  work  through  teachers* 
institutes,  through  farmers'  clubs,  granges  and 
other  means  we  believe  that  we  are  reaching 
farther  and  farther  into  the  very  agricultural 
regions.  It  is  difficult  to  get  consideration  for 
purely  agricultural  subjects  in  the  rural  schools 
themselves.  Often  the  school  does  not  have 
facilities  for  teaching  such  subjects,  the  teachers 
often  are  employed  only  for  a  few  months,  and 
there  is  frequently  a  sentiment  against  innovation. 
It  has  been  said  that  one  reason  why  agricultural 
subjects  are  taught  less  in  the  rural  schools  of 
America  than  in  those  of  some  parts  of  Europe 
is  because  of  the  few  male  teachers  and  the 
absence  of  school-gardens. 

"  This  Cornell  nature-study  movement  is  one 
small  part  of  a  general  awakening  in  educational 
circles  looking  toward  bringing  the  child  into 
actual  contact  and  sympathy  with  the  objects  with 
which  he  has  to  do.  This  work  is  taking  on 
many  phases.      One  aspect  of  it  is  its  relation  to 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE       71 

the  teaching  of  agriculture  and  to  the  love  of 
country  life.  This  aspect  is  yet  in  its  early 
experimental  stage.  The  time  will  come  when 
some  institution  in  every  State  will  carry  on  work 
along  this  line.  It  will  be  several  years  yet  before 
this  type  of  work  will  have  reached  what  may  be 
considered  an  established  condition  or  before  even 
a  satisfactory  body  of  experience  shall  have  been 
attained.  Out  of  the  varied  and  sometimes 
conflicting  methods  and  aims  that  are  now  before 
the  public  there  will  develop  in  time  an  institution- 
movement  of  extension  agriculture  teaching.'' 

A  nature-study  movement  alone  is  not  sufficient 
to  awaken  and  reconstruct  all  the  agricultural 
interests.  There  should  be  coordinate  efforts 
outside  the  schools.  In  order  merely  to  suggest 
other  lines  of  effort — and  not  to  commend  any 
particular  movement — the  following  classification 
of  the  Cornell  extension  work  may  be  made: 
This  extension  activity  in  agriculture  is  regularly 
and  systematically  reaching  about  75,000  people 
in  that  State.  Indirectly  the  work  spreads  to  far 
greater  numbers.  Several  causes  have  combined  to 
produce  this  result,  four  of  which  are  paramount. 
( I )  The  people  are  ready  for  the  work :  they 
want  to  learn.  (2)  Certain  persons  are  ready  to 
do  the  work:  they  want  to  teach.  (3)  The 
persons  into  whose  hands  the  work  has  fallen  are 
given  freedom  and  autonomy :  they  are  not 
restricted  or  hampered  by  those  in  authority. 
(4)  The  State  appropriates  money  :  the  appropri- 
ation is  made  because  work  is  done. 


72         THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

Of  these  four  factors,  the  money  is  the  least. 
No  institution  is  so  poor  that  something  cannot  be 
done  if  only  the  first  three  requisites  are  present. 
Time  by  time,  perhaps  little  by  little,  the  money 
will  come.  The  work  must  be  born,  grow  and 
mature.  Only  flies  and  their  like  are  born  full 
size. 

Any  good  extension  work  is  only  a  diligent 
effort  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  people.  If 
conditions  seem  to  demand  a  certain  kind  of 
effort,  that  effort  is  made.  No  theory  of  peda- 
gogics is  concerned  in  it.  Years  hence,  perhaps, 
it  will  be  possible  to  found  a  theory  on  what  shall 
have  been  accomplished. 

From  small  beginnings  the  work  has  grown 
year  by  year.  This  is  the  most  important  fact  in 
the  entire  movement.  The  work  has  entered 
fields  that  at  first  were  not  in  sight.  It  has 
demonstrated  the  value  of  various  kinds  of  effort, 
and  has  dropped  those  which  seem  to  be  of  least 
efficiency.  The  Cornell  extension  work,  as  it  is 
being  prosecuted  to-day  [1902],  may  be  displayed 
as  follows: 

I.  Extension  Teaching:  Endeavoring  to  give 
a  new  point  of  view  and  a  quickened  enthusiasm 
to  those  who  live  in  the  country. 

(^)  Nature-Study :  Teaching  the  youth  to  see 
and  to  appreciate  whatever  is  nearest  at  hand, 
thereby  bringing  him  into  sympathy  with  the 
conditions  in  which  he  lives.  This  work  is  pros- 
ecuted by  several  means : 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE       73 

I.  By  reaching  the  rising  generation.  The 
school  children  in  the  grades  are  organized  into 
Junior  Naturalist  Clubs  to  the  end  that  they  may 
love  the  country  better  and  be  content  to  live 
therein.  Each  club  receives  an  embellished 
charter.  Many  thousand  children  are  organized 
each  year.  For  these  children  a  "  Junior 
Naturalist  Monthly ''  is  published  suggesting 
topics  for  observation  and  study.  Each  child  pays 
monthly  "  dues "  by  v^riting  a  letter  or  essay 
on  some  object  that  it  has  observed.  The  dues 
may  be  the  composition  required  by  the  teacher, 
and  it  is  sent  to  the  nature-study  office  as  it  was 
v^ritten,  without  correction.  Having  paid  its 
dues,  the  child  receives  a  badge-button.  The 
Junior  Naturalist  Club  is  organized  under  the 
general  supervision  of  the  teacher,  but  the  detail  of 
the  work  is  carried  by  the  Nature-study  Bureau, 
thereby  relieving  the  teacher  of  extra  responsibil- 
ities. In  fact,  the  enthusiasm  and  centralized 
interest  which  the  Club  introduces  into  the  school 
lighten  the  burdens  of  the  teacher. 

Connected  with  the  Junior  Naturalist  enterprise 
is  a  Junior  Gardener  movement,  to  encourage 
specifically  the  growing  of  plants  and  the  making 
of  gardens.  This  movement  is  also  promulgated 
through  the  schools.  It  now  has  attained  great 
headway. 

Not  only  is  it  educational  wisdom  to  begin 
work  with  the  children,  but  it  is  also  one  of  the 
most  efficient  means  of  getting  work  done.  If  the 
children  are    once    thoroughly    interested  in  any 


74        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

enterprise,  the  enterprise  will  *'  go."  The  busiest 
and  most  obdurate  man  will  listen  to  a  child ;  so 
will  parents.  If  you  want  to  start  a  nature-study 
movement  or  to  improve  the  school  premises, 
arouse  the  children  first. 

2.  By  reaching  the  teacher  directly  for  the 
purpose  of  reaching  the  pupil.  For  the  teacher 
"  Nature-study  Leaflets "  have  been  prepared, 
giving  in  each  issue  a  suggestive  presentation  of 
some  nature-study  topic,  together  with  notes  of 
help  and  suggestion.  For  those  teachers  who 
desire  to  pursue  the  subjects  further,  a  home 
reading  course  is  organized  and  a  "  Home 
Nature-study  Lesson  "  is  published. 

3.  By  interesting  the  teaching  fraternity  in 
general,  through  lectures  at  teachers'  institutes 
and  conventions,  attendance  on  particular  schools 
where  work  is  being  done,  and  other  personal 
work.  A  lecturer  is  employed  to  attend  State 
teachers'  institutes,  occupying  a  regular  period  on 
the  program;  this  work  is  possible  through  the 
cooperation  of  the  State  Department  of  Public 
Instruction. 

4.  By  summer-school  teaching  in  the  teachers' 
schools  conducted  by  the  State  Department  of 
Public  Instruction.  For  two  years  a  special 
nature-study  summer-school  was  held  at  Cornell 
University,  but  being  obliged  to  husband  the 
resources  this  enterprise  was   reluctantly  dropped. 

5.  By  nature-study  instruction  in  the  Uni- 
versity, given  to  those  teachers  who  desire  it. 

6.  By  interesting  the  public  in  plant-growing, 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE      75 

particularly     in     the     improvement     of     school- 
grounds  and  the  planting  of  gardens. 

7.  By  direct  personal  correspondence  with 
parents,  teachers,  ministers  and  other  interested 
parties. 

(^b\  A  Farmers*  'Reading-Course ;  inducing  actual 
farmers  to  pursue  definite  courses  of  reading  in 
the  winter  season.  The  farmer  who  desires  to 
read  books  will  help  himself.  In  this  work,  the 
effort  is  made  to  gain  the  attention  of  those  who 
do  not  read  books.  The  literature  is  furnished  by 
the  University,  being  written  by  members  of  the 
Extension  Staff.  This  literature  is  in  the  form  of 
easy  eight-page  "  Reading-Lessons,"  detailing 
principles.  Each  lesson  is  accompanied  by  a  set  of 
questions,  the  answers  of  which  are  sent  to  the 
Bureau,  entitling  the  reader  to  remain  on  the 
rolls.  The  Reading-Lessons  are  in  three  series  of 
five  each,  as  follows  : 

First-year  series,  on  soil  and  plant-food. 

Second-year  series,  on  stock-feeding  and  dairying. 

Third-year  series,  on  fruit-growing. 

Each  reader  takes  these  series  in  course.  If 
any  one  desires  to  continue  his  reading  beyond  the 
third  year,  he  is  recommended  to  books. 

The  readers  are  aided  in  the  formation  of 
Reading-Clubs,  to  meet  twice  each  month  for 
the  five  winter  months,  thereby  devoting  two 
discussions  to  each  lesson.  Inspectors  and  lecturers 
visit  the  clubs. 

The  Reading-Club  may  arrange  for  experiments 
on  local  agricultural  difficulties,  to  be  conducted 


76        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

during  the  summer.  This  may  be  expected 
to  maintain  the  interest  throughout  the  busy- 
season. 

The  culmination  of  the  Reading-Course  is  an 
eleven  weeks'  term  of  instruction  at  the  University 
in  the  winter,  to  which  readers  and  others  are 
eligible. 

Reading-Course  and  text-book  work  must  not 
be  confounded  with  true  nature-study  work.  The 
former  aims  directly  at  the  imparting  of  informa- 
tion ;  the  latter  seeks  to  put  one  in  sympathy  with 
his  surroundings.  Any  successful  reading-course 
work  brings  the  reader  into  sympathy  with 
nature,  but  that  is  not  its  prime  motive.  The 
nature-study  bulletin  is  distinct  from  the  agricul- 
ture or  farming  bulletin,  however  elementary  the 
latter  may  be. 

Coordinate  with  the  regular  farmers'  Reading- 
Course,  there  is  a  course  for  farmers'  wives.  The 
most  difficult  and  discouraging  feature  of  American 
agriculture  is  the  isolated  position  of  the  farmer's 
wife.  This  position  can  be  alleviated  only  by  the 
elevation  of  the  general  tone  of  farm  life.  The 
farmers'  wives'  course  is  modeled  after  that  for 
farmers,  but  it  has  its  own  literature.  The 
publications  of  the  Farmers'  Wives'  Reading- 
Course  are  thus  far  as  follows : 

Saving  Steps, 

Home  Sanitation, 

Saving  Strength, 

Food  for  the  Farmer's  Family, 

The  Kitchen  Garden, 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE      'jj 

Practical  Farm  Housekeeping   (two  lessons), 

Reading  in  the  Farm  Home. 
[Those  who  desire  a  history  of  the  farmers'  reading- 
course  movement  should  consult  Bull.  72,  Office 
of   Experiment    Stations,   U.   S.    Department   of 
Agriculture.] 

2.  Itinerant  Experimenting:  Endeavoring 
to  solve  local  agricultural  perplexities  by  experi- 
ments on  the  spot,  and  also  to  illustrate  the 
application  of  well-known  knowledge.  These 
experiments  are  of  many  kinds,  conducted  in  many 
places.  This  is  necessarily  so,  because  the 
difficulties  of  farmers  are  so  many  and  various. 
Certain  definite  series  of  illustrative  experiments, 
have  been  planned  from  the  central  station,  however, 
and  farmers  have  been  asked  to  cooperate.  Chief 
of  these  are  experiments  with  fertilizers,  sugar 
beets,  spraying  orchards,  potato  and  bean  culture, 
cover-cropping,  alfalfa-growing,  poultry-raising. 
Experts  are  sent  to  investigate  outbreaks  of  insects, 
fungous  attacks  on  plants,  diseases  of  stock,  and  other 
special  difficulties.  Experiments  on  various 
problems  intimately  associated  with  the  extension 
work  are  also  made  at  the  University  itself 
Much  of  the  results  of  the  experimental  work 
connected  with  the  extension  enterprise  has 
appeared  in  bulletins ;  but  its  chief  value  is  not  in 
its  publication,  but  in  its  educational  effisct  in  the 
communities  in  which  it  is  conducted. 

All  this  looks  large  and  complete  when  seen  in 
type,  but  it  is  the  merest  beginning  of  what  should 


78        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

be  and  can  be  done.  Other  lines  of  effort  must  be 
added.  In  many  places  similar  work  is  in  progress. 
The  great  agricultural  States  of  the  middle  West 
Dromise  to  become  leaders.  The  efficiency  of  the 
work  will  depend  in  large  measure  on  its  adapt- 
ability to  the  particular  conditions  and  people  to 
be  served. 

The  ideals  of  nature-study  are  everywhere  the 
same ;  but  the  methods  and  means  are  capable 
of  endless  modification.  There  is  always  danger 
that  too  much  emphasis  will  be  placed  on  mere 
"learning"  on  the  part  of  the  child  or  the  pupil. 
The  real  value  of  the  extension  work  with  the 
young  lies  in  interesting,  enthusing,  inspiring 
them.  Mere  information,  however  valuable,  will 
not  cause  a  person  to  be  a  farmer,  nor  incline  him 
to  live  in  the  country.  Of  course  the  work  must 
be  practical— that  is,  it  must  be  truthful,  direct, 
forceful,  and  must  put  the  child  into  intimate 
contact  with  its  own  life.  It  must  aim  to 
give  him  power  and  enterprise  rather  than  assorted 
facts — although  the  facts  may  be  so  handled  that 
they  become  the  means  and  not  the  end.  I  fear 
that  some  good  persons  are  too  insistent  on  getting 
"agriculture"  into  the  schools.  There  is  no  gain 
in  getting  the  word  into  the  curriculum  unless 
the  subject  is  really  taught  with  optimism  and 
with  purpose. 

It  is  a  common  desire  to  bring  the  rural  schools 
into  intimate  relations  with  the  life  of  the 
community  merely  by  employing  teachers  having 
knowledge  of  farm  life.     This  may  be  of  little 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE      79 

consequence :  the  first  merit  of  a  teacher  is  to  be 
able  to  teach,  whatever  his  sympathies  or  technical 
knowledge.  Many  good  persons  seem  to  think 
that  the  only  thing  to  do  to  reform  any  school 
problem  is  to  get  a  teacher,  forgetting  that,  in 
the  long  run,  teachers  arise  in  response  to  a 
general  demand,  or  at  least  must  be  supported  by 
a  public  sentiment.  It  is  really  beginning  with 
the  wrong  end  of  the  problem  merely  to  ask  for 
teachers  having  knowledge  of  agriculture.  We 
should  first  awaken  a  general  desire  on  the  part 
of  patrons  for  the  new  type  of  instruction  :  when 
this  desire  is  aroused,  the  teachers  will  be  found. 
Usually  more  can  be  done  by  beginning  with  the 
children  rather  than  with  the  teacher.  The 
children  can  be  aroused  by  some  outside  agency. 
This  is  the  meaning  of  the  Junior  Naturalist 
movement  in  New  York  State.  Probably  the 
true  way  to  bring  the  rural  school  into  intimate 
touch  with  rural  affairs  is  to  begin  both  with 
patrons  and  teachers,  placing  far  the  greater 
dependence  on  the  work  with  patrons — and  with 
the  patrons  the  best  results  are  to  be  expected 
from  work  with  the  children.  By  interesting 
the  parents  we  shall  bring  pressure  to  bear  on 
local  school  boards,  school  commissioners  and 
superintendents,  and  school  teachers  to  provide 
more  usable  and  direct  instruction. 

Children  are  always  ready  to  "  do  something.** 
The  success  of  kindergarten  and  school-garden 
work  rests  on  this  common  trait.  The  school- 
garden  idea  can  be  variously  modified.      A  recent 


8o        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

adaptation  of  it  is  the  "  district  school  experiment 
garden"  projected  by  O.  J.  Kern,  Superintendent 
of  Schools  of  Winnebago  County,  Illinois. 
These  Illinois  gardens  are  designed  for  the 
explicit  teaching  of  agricultural  subjects.  Is  it 
not  strange  that  schools  in  farming  communities 
should  not  be  equipped  with  a  bit  of  farmed  land  ? 
Aside  from  the  tilled  school-garden,  why  not 
make  arrangement  with  the  adjoining  farmer  to 
pasture  his  stock  next  the  school-ground  now  and 
then  ?  And  why  not  have  this  farmer  give  the 
children  talks  about  the  animals  ? 

In  recent  years  there  has  been  a  marvelous 
application  of  knowledge  and  research  to  agricul- 
tural practice.  We  have  exerted  every  effort  to 
increase  the  productiveness  and  efficiency  of  the 
farm,  and  we  have  entered  a  new  era  in  farming — 
a  fact  that  will  be  more  apparent  in  the  years  to 
come  than  it  is  now.  The  burden  of  the  new 
agricultural  teaching  has  been  largely  the 
augmentation  of  material  wealth.  Hand  in  hand 
with  this  new  teaching,  however,  should  go  an 
awakening  in  the  less  tangible  but  equally 
powerful  things  of  the  spirit.  More  attractive 
and  more  comfortable  farm  homes,  better  reading, 
more  responsive  interest  in  the  events  of  the 
world,  closer  touch  with  the  common  objects 
about  him — these  must  be  looked  to  before  agri- 
culture really  can  be  revived.  Appeal  to  greater 
efficiency  of  the  farm  alone  cannot  permanently 
relieve  the  agricultural  status.  This  is  all  well 
illustrated  in  the  attitude  of  children  toward  the 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE       8i 

farm.  In  a  certain  rural  school  in  New  York 
State  of  say  forty-five  pupils,  I  asked  all  those 
children  that  lived  on  farms  to  raise  their  hands  : 
all  hands  but  one  went  up.  I  then  asked  all  those 
who  wanted  to  live  on  the  farm  to  raise  their 
hands  :  only  that  one  hand  went  up  !  Now,  these 
children  were  too  young  to  feel  the  appeal  of  more 
bushels  of  potatoes  or  more  pounds  of  wool,  yet 
they  had  this  early  formed  their  dislike  of  the 
farm.  Some  of  this  dislike  is  probably  only  an 
ill-defined  desire  for  a  mere  change,  such  as  one 
finds  in  all  occupations,  but  I  am  convinced  that 
the  larger  part  of  it  was  a  genuine  dissatisfaction 
with  farm  life.  These  children  felt  that  their  lot 
was  less  attractive  than  that  of  other  children  ;  I 
concluded  that  a  flower  garden  and  a  pleasant 
yard  would  do  more  to  content  them  with  living 
on  the  farm  than  ten  more  bushels  of  wheat 
to  the  acre.  Of  course,  it  is  the  greater  and 
better  yield  that  will  enable  the  farmer  to  supply 
these  amenities ;  but  at  the  same  time  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  increased  yield  itself  does 
not  awaken  a  desire  for  them.  I  should  make 
farm  life  interesting  before  I  make  it  profitable. 
These  points  of  view  are  well  expressed  by 
David  Felmley,  President  of  the  Illinois  State 
Normal  School,  at  Normal :  "  It  is  evident  that 
the  argicultural  experiment  station  will  never 
accomplish  its  purpose  unless  there  is  diffused 
among  our  farming  population  an  elementary 
knowledge  of  the  sciences  relating  to  agriculture. 
The  rural  schools  and  the  high   schools   attended 


82        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

by  farmers'  sons  must  provide  the  necessary 
instruction.  There  seems  no  other  practical  way. 
The  special  instruction  offered  in  this  line  is  not 
merely  to  train  skilful  farmers.  It  is  quite 
important  that  farmer  boys  and  girls  learn  to 
appreciate  and  love  the  country.  There  need  be 
here  no  division  in  material  or  method.  The 
knowledge  of  soil  and  atmosphere,  of  plant  and 
animal  life  that  makes  him  an  intelligent 
producer,  puts  him  in  sympathetic  touch  with 
these  activities  of  nature.  If  the  farmer  as  he 
trudges  down  the  corn  rows  under  the  June  sun 
sees  only  clods,  and  weeds,  and  corn,  he  leads  an 
empty  and  a  barren  life.  But  if  he  knows  of  the 
work  of  the  moisture  in  air  and  soil,  of  the  use 
of  air  to  root  and  leaf,  of  the  mysterious 
chemistry  of  the  sunbeam,  of  the  vital  forces  in 
the  growing  plant,  of  the  bacteria  in  the  soil 
liberating  its  elements  of  fertility ;  if  he  sees  the 
relation  of  all  these  natural  forces  to  his  own 
work ;  if  he  can  follow  his  crop  to  the  market, 
to  foreign  lands,  to  the  mill,  to  the  oven  and  the 
table  ;  if  he  knows  of  the  hundreds  of  commercial 
products  obtained  from  his  corn  or  the  animals 
that  it  fattens :  he  then  realizes  that  he  is  no 
mere  toiler ;  he  is  marshaling  the  hosts  of  the 
universe,  and  upon  the  skill  of  his  generalship 
depends  the  life  of  nations.'' 

It  will  be  seen  at  once  that  all  these  new  ideals 
are  bound  to  result  in  a  complete  revolution  of 
our  current  methods  of  rural  school-teaching. 
The    time   cannot  be  very  far   distant   when    we 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE       83 

shall  have  systems  of  common  schools  that  are 
built  upon  the  fundamental  idea  of  serving  the 
people  in  the  very  lives  that  the  people  are  to 
lead.  In  many  places  there  are  strong  protests 
against  the  old  order ;  in  other  places  there  are 
distinct  beginnings  of  the  new  order.  The 
following  protest  is  by  John  J.  McMahan,  State 
Superintendent  of  Education  for  South  Carolina: 
"  The  old-time  high  school  prepares  for  the 
exceptional  life.  There  is  little  room  for  Latin 
and  Greek  and  fancy  learning  in  the  system  of 
education  that  looks  to  the  future  lives  of  the 
great  body  of  breadwinners  and  home-builders. 
We  must  abandon  the  pleasing  delusion  that  all 
go  to  school  with  expectation  of  afterward  going 
to  college.  We  know  that  hardly  one  in  a 
hundred  will  ever  go  to  college.  We  define 
education  as  a  preparation  for  complete  living. 
Have  we  not  adapted  our  preparation  to  the 
unusual  and  improbable  life,  and  largely  neglected 
preparing  the  average  man  for  the  duties  almost 
certain  to  be  upon  him  ?  We  should  recognize 
that  complete  living  is  a  relative  term,  and  that 
the  complete  life  which  is  the  ideal  of  the 
philosopher,  and  of  the  statesman  as  well,  is  not 
the  complete  life  that  can  be  realized  at  this 
stage  of  human  development  by  any  great  number 
of  our  citizens.  In  holding  up  a  high  standard 
of  education  as  the  ultimate  right  of  every  citizen, 
let  us  not  be  so  unmindful  of  the  present  as  to 
deny  to  nearly  all  that  education  which  could  be 
given  them  to  their  great  benefit  and  happiness.'^ 


84        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

The  beginnings  of  the  new  order  are  seen  in 
the  nature-study  movement,  the  establishing  of 
agricultural  high  schools,  the  strong  agitation  for 
country  or  district  industrial  schools,  the  spread 
of  reading-courses,  the  rise  of  pupils'  gardens, 
the  general  awakening  of  rural  communities. 
Books  and  methods  are  now  made  for  town 
schools  rather  than  for  country  schools;  the  real 
texts  for  the  rural  schools  are  just  now  beginning 
to  appear,  and  they  represent  a  new  type  of  school 
literature.  In  the  future,  the  text-book  is  to 
have  relatively  less  influence  than  in  the  past. 
We  have  been  living  in  a  text-book  and  museun 
age.  All  this  old  method  is  not  to  be  complained 
of.  The  fact  that  so  many  new  subjects  and 
propaganda  are  coming  in  shows  that  we  are  in 
the  midst  of  an  evolution :  we  are  in  the  making 
of  progress. 

This  new  teaching  for  the  farmer  is  a  most 
attractive  field  for  well-directed  effort.  We  need 
more  teachers  for  it  in  the  colleges  and  normal 
schools  and  common  schools.  The  teaching  in 
our  agricultural  colleges  should  be  seized  with  the 
missionary  spirit,  with  the  desire  to  send  out  young 
persons  who  care  not  so  much  to  make  professors 
and  experimenters  in  the  great  institutions,  as  to 
give  themselves  to  spread  the  gospel  of  nature-love 
and  of  self-respecting  resourceful  farming  through 
all  the  colleges  and  all  the  public  schools.  The 
time  is  coming  quickly  when  the  college  or  school 
that  wants  really  to  reach  the  people  must  teach 
rural    subjects    from    the    human    point  of  view. 


THE    AGRICULTURAL    PHASE       85 

The  real  solution   of  the  agricultural  problem 

which  is  at  the  same  time  the  national  problem 

is  to  give  the  countryman  a  vital,  intellectual, 
sympathetic,  optimistic  interest  in  his  daily  life! 
For  myself,  if  I  have  any  gifts,  I  mean  to  use 
them  for  the  spiritualizing  of  agriculture. 

We  are  on  the  borderland  of  a  mighty  country  : 
v^e  are  v^^aiting  for  a  leader  to  take  us  to  its  center. 


VIII 

REVIEW 

In  the  increasing  complexities  of  our  lives  we 
need  nothing  so  much  as  simplicity  and  repose. 
In  city  or  country  or  on  the  sea,  nature  is  the 
surrounding  condition.  It  is  the  universal  environ- 
ment. Since  we  cannot  escape  this  condition, 
it  were  better  that  we  have  no  desire  to  escape. 
It  were  better  that  we  know  the  things,  small  and 
great,  which  make  up  this  environment,  and  that 
we  live  with  them  in  harmony,  for  all  things  are 
of  kin ;  then  shall  we  love  and  be  content. 

All  men  love  nature  if  they  but  knew  it.  The 
methods  and  fashions  of  our  living  obscure  the 
universal  passion.  The  more  perfect  the  machinery 
of  our  lives  the  more  artificial  do  they  become. 
Teaching  is  ever  more  methodical  and  complex. 
The  pupil  is  impressed  with  the  vastness  of  knowl- 
edge and  the  importance  of  research.  I-This  is 
well ;  but  at  some  point  in  the  school-life  there 
should  be  the  opening  of  the  understanding  to 
the  simple  wisdom  of  the  fields.  One's  happiness 
depends  less  on  what  he  knows  than  on  what  he 
feels. 

There  are  men  and  women  who  pursue  science 
for  science's  sake  without  thought  of  its  relation 
to  human  lives.     They  are  the  explorers  of  the 

(86) 


REVIEW  87 

intellectual  sphere.  Immensely  do  they  extend 
our  horizon.  They  add  to  the  store  of  subject- 
matter.  They  make  progress  possible.  But  these 
persons  must  always  be  the  few.  They  are  a 
professional  class.  Most  persons  desire  those 
things  which  have  relation  to  the  ideals  of  living. 
To  them,  science  as  science  is  of  little  moment. 
They  cannot  pursue  it.  It  is  dry.  But  it  may  be 
made  a  means  of  giving  them  closer  touch  with 
nature.  If  pursued  too  far  or  in  too  great  detail, 
it  may  repel  rather  than  attract.  What  we  teach 
as  science  drives  many  a  person  from  nature.  We 
must  reach  the  people;  but  we  can  reach  them 
only  by  looking  from  their  point  of  view.  Most 
persons  cannot  be  investigators.  In  the  school-life 
there  must  come  a  reaction  from  the  too  exclusive 
view-point  of  science. 

In  the  early  years  we  are  not  to  teach 
nature  as  science,  we  are  not  to  teach  it 
primarily  for  method  or  for  drill :  we  are  to 
teach  it  for  living  and  for  loving — and  this  is 
nature-study.  On  these  points  I  make  no 
compromise. 

The  best  living  must  always  be  a  striving  for 
ideals.  The  day  of  the  idealist  is  not  passed.  It 
is  here.  We  must  not  allow  the  phenomenal 
development  of  our  material  progress  to  obscure 
it.  We  must  rise  to  higher  ideals.  We  must 
educate  the  child  for  the  life  of  the  next  generation. 
A  good  teacher  has  the  gift  of  prophecy.  The 
twentieth  century  is  coming  in  with  a  spiritual 
awakening.      One  sign  of  this  awakening  is   the 


88        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

outlook  nature-ward.  The  growing  passion  for 
country  life  is  a  soul-movement. 

More  and  more,  in  this  time  of  books  and 
reviews,  do  we  need  to  take  care  that  we  think 
our  own  thoughts.  We  need  to  read  less  and  to 
think  more.  We  need  personal,  original  contact 
with  objects  and  events.  We  need  to  be  self-poised, 
self-reliant.  The  strong  man  entertains  himself 
with  his  own  thoughts.  No  person  should  rely- 
solely  on  another  person  for  his  happiness. 

The  power  that  moves  the  world  is  the  power 
of  the  teacher. 


PART  II 


THE    INTERPRETATION    OF    NATURE 

I  ONCE  saw  two  sisters  standing  on  the  doorstep 
bidding  good-by  to  their  husbands,  who  were  off 
for  a  day's  outing.  One  looked  at  the  sky  and 
said  :  '^  I  am  afraid  it  will  rain."  The  other  looked 
at  the  sky  and  said:  ^'I  know  that  you'll  have  a 
good  time."  There  was  one  sky,  but  there  were 
two  women.  There  were  two  types  of  mind. 
There  were  two  outlooks  on  the  world.  There 
were  two  points  of  view. 

The  greatest  thing  in  life  is  the  point  of  view. 
It  determines  the  current  of  our  lives. 

The  satisfaction  that  we  derive  from  the  external 
world  is  determined  by  the  attitude  in  which  we 
consider  it.  All  unconsciously  one's  habit  of 
mind  toward  the  nature-world  is  formed.  We 
grow  into  our  opinions  and  beliefs  without  knowing 
why.  It  is  therefore  well  to  challenge  these  opin- 
ions now  and  then,  to  see  that  they  contain  the 
minimum  of  error  and  misdirection.  This  chal- 
lenging of  the  point  of  view  is  the  theme  of  the 
text  that  I  am  writing. 

Nature-study,  properly  handled,  interprets  na- 
ture. It  does  not  stop  dead  with  the. information 
that  is  acquired.  Tt^endeavors  to  understand  as 
well  as  to  see. 

(90 


II 

SCIENCE   FOR  SCIENCE'S   SAKE 

The  other  day  I  attended  a  teachers'  convention. 
A  demure  little  woman  told  of  the  enthusiasm  with 
which  her  pupils  collected  butterflies  and  plants, 
and  she  described  the  museum  that  they  had  made. 
She  showed  a  folio  of  mounted  plants,  and  a  cigar- 
box  containing  insects.  I  admired  the  specimens, 
and  mentally  I  complimented  her  judgment  in 
finding  so  good  use  for  such  a  box.  The  tobacco 
odor  kept  the  carnivorous  bugs  away,  and  I  also 
commended  the  judgment  of  the  bugs.  There 
was  genuine  enthusiasm  in  the  little  woman's 
manner,  and  I  wanted  to  be  a  young  naturalist. 
When  she  was  talking,  I  strayed  far  in  the  fields  and 
picked  a  dandelion. 

But  there  was  a  man  in  the  audience  who 
squelched  the  little  woman.  Her  methods  were 
all  wrong.  They  were  worse  than  wrong  :  the 
children  must  unlearn  what  she  had  taught  them. 
She  should  have  begun  with  some  definite  subject, 
and  followed  it  systematically  and  logically.  The 
pupil  must  be  held  to  the  task  day  after  day,  until  he 
masters  the  topic.  To  skip  from  subject  to  subject 
is  to  be  superficial.  This  way  of  teaching  does 
not  result  in  mental  drill.  To  make  a  collection 
is  only  play,  and  names   are    vulgar.      The  pupil 

(92) 


SCIENCE    FOR    SCIENCE'S    SAKE     93 

must  be  impressed  with  the  immensity  and  impor- 
tance of  his  subject.  When  he  was  talking,  I 
smelled  alcohol  and  I  saw  a  frog  in  a  museum  jar. 

Which  was  right?  No  doubt  each  was  correct 
from  the  personal  point  of  view,  but  wrong  from 
the  other's  point  of  view.  I  recalled  that  the  little 
woman  only  recited  what  she  had  done  ;  the  man 
upbraided  her  for  not  doing  something  else.  Per- 
haps it  is  easy  to  advise  and  to  criticize.  The  little 
woman  was  teaching  children.  She  wanted  to  lead 
them  to  love  the  things  they  saw.  She  approached 
the  subject  from  the  human  side,  for  are  not  the 
boy  and  the  girl  a  part  of  what  we  call  nature? 
They  are  not  yet  tamed  and  conventionalized. 
Does  not  every  boy  and  girl  like  to  go  in  the 
fields  and  ^^get"  things?  She  was  not  thinking 
of  the  subject-matter  ;  or  if  she  did  think  of  it,  she 
knew  that  it  could  take  care  of  itself.  All  she  was 
thinking  of  —  poor  soul! — was  to  interest  and 
educate  the  children.  And  she  knew  that  if  she 
set  a  subject  and  followed  it  day  by  day  the  seats 
would  soon  be  vacant. 

The  man  was  thinking  of  his  college  students; 
perhaps  he  had  not  considered  that  these  students 
already  liked  the  subject  and  needed  only  instruc- 
tion. He  forgot  that  you  cannot  force  a  person  to 
choose  a  thing,  although  you  may  force  him  to  take 
it.  His  were  picked  students,  one  from  this  town 
and  another  from  that  ;  hers  were  all  the  pupils  in 
her  little  community.  His  pupils  had  seen  and 
had  chosen  ;  to  hers  the  world  was  all  unseen  and 
•untried.      His   were   the  one  in  a  hundred  ;  hers 


94        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

were  the  entire  hundred.  His  students  had  elected 
the  subject;  for  this  subject  they  were  to  Uve;  they 
would  increase  the  boundaries  of  knowledge ;  they 
would  be  scientists.  He  did  not  consider  that  all 
pupils  would  not  be  scientists. 

Sometimes  it  seems  as  if  scientists  think  that  they 
have  the  right  of  way  in  the  subjects  which  they 
espouse;  but  there  is  more  than  one  way  of  inter- 
preting nature.  Their  view  is  necessary  in  all 
matters  of  fact  and  truth,  but  not  when  points  of 
view  are  concerned.  This  is  well  illustrated  in 
the  usurpation  of  common  words.  The  word 
*^  organic  '^  relates  to  organisms  and  their  products. 
But  when  the  chemist  studies  the  composition  of 
organic  compounds  he  defines  the  word  in  terms 
of  chemistry.  To  him  an  organic  compound  may 
be  a  carbon  compound  or  a  carbohydrate  derivative  ; 
and  he  can  make  an  organic  compound  without 
any  relation  to  an  organism  I  Organic  is  originally 
a  biological,  not  a  chemical  idea.  Again,  our  fore- 
fathers used  the  word  ^'bug"  for  various  kinds  of 
bugs;  but  scientists  have  taken  this  word  ^'bug'' 
and  have  made  it  mean  only  a  particular  kind  of  a 
bug.  This  is  all  well  enough  amongst  them- 
selves, but  when  they  attempt  to  make  all  the  rest 
of  the  world  use  ^^bug''  as  they  do  they  go  too 
far.  Our  forefathers  have  prior  claims.  It  would 
be  better  if  newly  made  words  could  be  used  for 
new  ideas.  Science  needs_.aJ££hnical  language  of 
its  own. 

What  is  the  kernel  of  all  this  discussion  about 
the  pedagogical  sin  of  making  collections  and  of 


SCIENCE   FOR    SCIENCE'S    SAKE     95 

attaching  names  thereto?  The  old  idea  of  the 
study  of  nature  was  to  make  an  inventory  oTtHingsT 
The  objects  are  bewilderingly  numerous,  and  to 
put  them  away  in  a  cabinet,  with  a  proper  ticket 
attached,  was  to  know  them.  The  great  want  was 
names  and  classification  ;  and  these  names  must  be 
arranged  in  books.  This  natural  history  bookkeep- 
ing received  itsTargest  impetus  from  the'Friiomial 
method  of  naming,  which  might  be  called  a  system 
of  ^^  double  entry."  ^ 

This  naming  of  objects  is  necessary.  It  is  the 
starting-point,  as  a  city  directory TsT!  ^ut  it  is  only 
"the  beginning  of  wisdom.  It  is  not  an  end.  The 
profound  speculations  of  the  modern  evolutionists 
have  emphasized  the  importance  of  the  things 
themselves,  and  particularly  of  real  or  live  things. 
The  point  of  view  has  changed.  Do  not  let  your 
pupils  make  an  herbarium,  the  modern  teacher  will 
say,  but  tell  them  to  study  the  plants.  We  all 
sympathize  with  this  point  of  view ;  but  what  are 
we  going  to  do  with  this  native  and  exuberant  desire 
of  the  child  to  explore  and  to  collect?  We  are 
taught,  also,  that  we  should  develop  and  strengthen 
the  natural  powers.  One  of  my  friends  will  not 
let  his  little  boy  make  an  herbarium,  because  that 
is  mere  superficial  amusement ;  so  the  child  collects 
postage  stamps.  He  does  not  care  to  have  him 
know  the  names  of  plants,  but  he  is  very  careful  to 
have  him  properly  introduced  to  visitors ;  and  what 
is    an    introduction  but  a  conventional  passing   of 

names?  I 

I  believe  that  we  have  gone  too^  far  in  decrying 


96        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

the  making  of  collections.  We  can  make  the 
collecting  the  means  of  securing  real  information. 
We  can  fasten  the  attention  of^the  child.  The  one 
caution  is,  not  to  make  it  an  end.  The  child 
cannot  collect  without  seeing  the  object  as  it  lives 
and  grows.  It  appeals  to  him  more  in  the  field 
than  it  does  in  the  museum.  Let  him  collect  for 
the  purpose  of  understanding  a  problem.  Where 
does  the  dandelion  grow  ?  What  are  the  plants  in 
yonder  bog?  How  many  are  the  weeds  in  the 
orchard?  What  are  the  borers  in  the  old  log? 
Set  the  child  a  field  problem  and  he  will  collect  in 
spite  of  himself.  Then  the  collecting  has  teaching 
power.  But  to  make  a  collection  of  one  hundred 
specimens  in  order  to  obtain  a  pass-mark  is  scarcely 
worth  the  eflfort.  The  poinLXwish  to  urge  is  that 
there  is  no  reason  in  the  nature  of  things  why  sub- 
jects always  should  be  taught  this  way  or  that,  so 
long  as  they  are  taught  truthfully  —  and  there  are 
many  ways  of  teaching  the  trutbV  "  The  w%  ta. 
teach  is,  after  all,  mostly  a  matter  of  experience 
and  expediencyl^  Things  were  not  made  either  to 
be  analyzed  or  collected. 


Ill 


THE   EXTRINSIC   AND   INTRINSIC   VIEWS   OF   NATURE 

**The  purpose  of  this  exercise  is  to  tell  children 
how  to  see  the  hidden  beauties  of  flowers.'^  Thus 
ran  the  announcement  at  the  opening  of  the  class- 
room period.  Is  it  worth  while  to  tell  them  any 
such  thing?  Why  not  teach  them  to  be  interested 
in  plants?  Why  give  them  a  half-truth  when  they 
might  have  the  whole  truth  ? 

Ths_lLbeauty  "  of  a  flower  or  a  bird  is  only  an 
incident,:,  the  plant  or  the  bird  is  the  important 
thing  to  kno^.  Beauty  is  not  an  end.  .  The  ^r^on 
who  starts  out  to  see  beauty  in  plants  is  often  in  the 
condition  of  mind  that  the  dear  old  lady  was  who 
came  into  my  conservatory  and  exclaimed,  as  she 
saw  the  geraniums,  ^^Oh,  they  are  as  pretty  as 
artificial  flowers ! '' 

Bttfcc=i!Sie  people  are  not  looking  for  beauty, 
afee^s3s&;  they  look  for  mere  satisfying  form  or 
trcolor  or  oddity.  They  confound  beauty  with 
prettiness  or"  with  outward  attractiveness.  Real 
beauty  is  deeper  than  sensation.  It  inheres  in 
fitness  of  means  to  end_3_$__Wj£l]_jasJn  physical  attri- 
butes. XhjLchild  should  see  the  object  itself  before 
he  sees  its  parts.      Teach  first  the  whole  bug,  the 

"vvTroIe'T)Tr37  the  whole  plant.      The   botanist  may 
(977 


<■ 


98        THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

well  devote  his  life  to  a  single  cell^  but  the  layman 
'wants  to  know.diejtrees  and  the  woods. 

I  dislike  to  hear  people  say  that  they  love  flowers. 
They  should  love  plants ;  then  they  have  a  deeper 
hold  on  nature.  Intellectual  interest  should  go 
deeper  than  mere  shape  or  color.  Teachers  or 
parents  ask  the  child  to  see  how  ''pretty"  the 
object  is ;  but  in  most  cases  the  child  wants  to  know 
how  it  lives  and  what  it  does. 
f  It  is  instructive  to  note  the  increasing  love  for 
\  wild  animals  and  plants  as  a  country  grows  old  and 
mature.  This  is  particularly  well  illustrated  in 
plants.  In  pioneer  times  there  are  too  many 
plants.  The  eflort  is  to  get  rid  of  them.  The 
forest  is  razed  and  the  roadsides  are  cleaned.  The 
\  pioneer  is  satisfied  with  things  in  the  gross.  If  he 
plants  at  all,  he  usually  plants  things  exotic  or 
strange  to  the  neighborhood.  The  woman  grows 
a  geranium  or  fuchsia  in  a  tin  can,  and  no»^  and 
then  makes  a  flower-bed  in  the  front  yard ;  but  the 
man  is  likely  to  think  such  things  beneath  him. 
If  a  man  has  flowers  at  all,  he  must  have 
something  that  will  fill  the  eye.  Sunflowers  are 
satisfying. 

r-  But  the  second  and  third  generations  begin  to 
plant  forests  and  to  allow  the  roadsides  to  grow  wild 
at  intervals.  Persons  come  to  be  satisfied  with  their 
common  surroundings  and  to  derive  less  pleasure 
from  objects  merely  because  they  are  unlike  their 
j  surroundings.  Choice  plants  come  into  the  yards 
here  and  there,  and  the  men  of  the  household  begin 
to  care  for  them.      The  birds  and  wild  animals  are 


\ 


THE    VIEWS    OF    NATURE  99 

cherished.  Love  of  books  increases.  All  this 
marks  the  growth  of  the  intellectual  life. 

r  Airierica  is  iilaxid  of  cut, flowers.  Nowhere  does 
the    cut-flower    trade    assume    such    commanding 

/  importance.  Churches  and  homes  are  decorated 
with  them.  One  sees  the  churches  of  the  Old 
World  decorated  with  plants  in  pots  or  tubs.  The 
Englishman  or  the  German  loves  to  care   for  the 

^  plant  from  the  time  it  sprouts  until  it  dies :  it  is  a 
companion.  The  American  snips  off  its  head  and 
puts    it  in  his   buttonhole :  it   is   an  ornament.     I 

\  have  sometimes  wondered  whether  the  average 
flower-buyer  knows  that  flowers  grow  on  plants. 
Flowers  are  fleeting. 

/  All  of  us  have  known  people  who  derive  more 
satisfaction  from  a  poor  plant  that  never  blooms 
than  others  do  from  a  bunch  of  American  Beauty 
roses  at  $5.  There  is  individuality  —  I  had  almost 
said  personality  —  in  a  growing,  living  plant,  but 
there  is  little  of  it  about  a  detached  flower.  And 
it  does  not  matter  so  much  if  the  plant  is  poor 
and  weakly  and  scrawny.  Do  we  not  love  poor 
and  crippled  and  crooked  people  ?  A  plant  in  the 
room  on  washday  is  worth  more  than  a  bunch  of 
flowers  on  Sunday. 

r  But  the  American  taste  is  rapidly  changing. 
Each  year  the  florist's  trade  sees  a  proportionately 
greater  demand  for  plants^  The  same  change  is 
seen  in  the  parks  and  Kome  grounds.  More  and 
more  the  gross  carpet-beds  are  relegated  to  those 
parts  of  the  grounds  that  are  devoted  to  curios- 
ities, or  they  are  omitted  altogether,  and  in  their 


loo      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

stead  are  restful  sward  and  peaceful  verdure. 
Flowers  are  not  to  be  despised,  but  they  are 
accessories. 

This  habit  of  looking  first  at  what  we  call  the 
beauty  of  objects  is  closely  associated  with  the  old 
conceit  that  everything  is  made  to  please  man  :  man 
is  only  demanding  his  own.  It  is  true  that  every- 
thing is  man's  because  he  may  use  it  or  enjoy  it, 
but  not  because  it  was  designed  and  ''made"  for 
*'him''  in  the  beginning.  This  notion  that  all 
things  were  made  for  man's  special  pleasure  is 
colossal  self-assurance.  It  has  none  of  the  humility 
of  the  psalmist,  who  exclaimed,  "What  is  man, 
that  thou  art  mindful  of  him?  " 

"What  were  these  things  made  for,  then?" 
asked  my  friend.  Just  for  themselves  1  Each  thing 
lives  for  itself  and  its  kind,  and  to  live  is  worth  the 
effort  of  living  for  man  or  bug.  But  there  are 
more  homely  reasons  for  believing  that  things  were 
not  made  for  man  alone.  There  was  logic  in  the 
farmer's  retort  to  the  good  man  who  told  him  that 
roses  were  made  to  make  man  happy.  "  No,  they 
wa'n't,"  said  the  farmer,  "or  they  wouldn't  'a' 
had  prickers." 

Being  human,  we  interpret  nature  in  human 
terms.  Much  of  our  interpretation  of  nature  is 
really  an  interpretation  of  ourselves.  Because  a 
condition  or  a  motive  obtains  in  human  affairs,  we 
assume  that  it  obtains  everywhere.  The  only  point 
of  view  is  our  own  point  of  view.  Of  necessity, 
we  assume  a  starting-point;  therefrom  we  evolve 
an  hypothesis  which  may  be  either  truth  or  fallacy. 


THE    VIEWS    OF    NATURE         loi 

Asa  Gray  combated  Agassiz's  hypothesis  that  species 
were  originally  created  where  we  now  find  them 
and  in  approximately  the  same  numbers  by  invoking 
Maupertuis's  ''principle  of  least  action  "—'' that 
it  is  inconsistent  with  our  idea  of  divine  wisdom 
that  the  Creator  should  use  more  power  than  was 
necessary  to  accomplish  a  given  end."  The  result 
may  be  secured  with  a  less  expenditure  of  energy 
than  Agassiz's  method  would  entail.  But  who 
knows  that  ''our  idea  of  the  divine  wisdom"  is 
truthful  ?  It  is  only  a  human  metaphor ;  but,  being 
human,  it  is  useful. 

Much  of  our  thinking  about  nature  is  only  the 
working  out  of  propositions  in  logic,  and  logic  is 
sometimes,  I  fear,  but  a  substitute  for  fact.  It  is 
impossible  to  put  ourselves  in  nature's  place  —  if  I 
may  be  allowed  the  personification  ;  that  is,  difficult 
to  get  the  point  of  view  of  the  organism  that  we  are 
studying.  If  it  were  possible  to  get  that  point  of 
view,  it  would  be  an  end  to  much  of  our  specu- 
lation ;  we  should  then  deal  with  fact. 

We  hope  that  we  are  coming  nearer  to  an 
intrinsic  view  of  animals  and  plants ;  yet  we  are  so 
intent  on  discovering  what  ought  to.be  that  we 
forget  to  accept  what  is. 


IV 


MUST    A    ^^USE"    be    found    FOR  EVERYTHING  ? 

Each  pupil  had  a  plant  of  the  spring  buttercup. 
The  teacher  called  attention  to  the  long  fibrous 
roots,  the  parted  leaves,  the  yellow  flowers ;  but 
these  parts  were  apparently  only  incidentals,  for  she 
touched  them  lightly.  But  the  hairs  on  the  stem 
and  leaves  were  important.  They  must  be  of  some 
use  to  the  plant.  What  is  it  ?  Evidently  to  protect 
the  plant  from  cold,  for  does  not  the  plant  throw  up 
its  tiny  stem  in  the  very  teeth  of  winter  ?  It  was 
clear  enough ;  and  thus  are  we  taught  that  not  the 
least  thing  is  made  in  vain.  Everything  has  its 
place  and  use ;  it  is  our  business  to  determine  what 
the  uses  are.  We  must  think  of  these  things  as  we 
come  and  go. 

I  wondered  how  these  children  would  look  upon 
the  plants  and  animals  they  meet,  and  what  the 
great  round  world  would  mean  to  them.  The 
blackberry  has  thorns  to  keep  away  the  animals  that 
would  harm  it ;  the  rabbit  has  soft  short  fur  that  it 
may  not  be  caught  in  the  briers ;  the  poison  sumac 
has  venom  to  protect  it  from  those  who  would 
destroy  it;  the  crow  is  black  that  it  may  not  be 
seen  at  night;  the  nettle  has  stings  to  punish  its 
enemies ;  the  dog  fennel  has  rank  scent  to  protect 

(102) 


A    "USE"    FOR    EVERYTHING?     103 

it  from  the  browsing  animals.      All  the  world  is  as 
perfect  as  a  museum  I 

I  wondered  what  would  happen  if  some  inquis- 
itive child  were  to  ask  what  becomes  of  all  the  plants 
which  have  no  thorns  or  hairs  or  poison  or  ill  scent. 
What  if  he  should  ask  why  the  thornless  blackberry 
does  not  perish,  or  why  the  sumacs  that  are  not 
poisonous  still  live,  or  if  he  should  suggest  that  the 
dandelion  comes  up  earlier  in  the  spring  than  the 
buttercup  and  yet  has  no  hairs  on  its  slender  flower 
stem?  As  I  wondered,  a  little  hand  went  up. 
The  teacher  granted  a  question.  "Pigweeds  ain't 
got  any  prickers,"  said  the  boy.  I  saw  that  the 
boy  was  a  philosopher.  ''True  enough,"  replied 
the  teacher  promptly,  ''but  I  am  sure  that  it  has 
something  with  which  to  protect  itself." 

Thereby  I  knew  her  point  of  view  :  she  had 
made  up  her  mind  what  to  see,  and  it  was  necessary 
only  to  hunt  until  she  saw  it;  and  in  this  respect 
she  was  Hke  many  another.  Persons  seem  to  inter- 
pret the  struggle  for  existence  as  a  fight.  It  is  a 
sanguinary  combat  between  adults.  Everything 
must  protect  itself  with  armor.  A  botanist,  in 
writing  a  description  of  a  new  and  strange  plant, 
noted  the  peculiar  spines  and  then  remarked : 
*'  That  these  are  of  some  use  to  the  plant  can  hardly 
be  doubted.  Perhaps  they  serve  to  prevent  the 
access  of  undesirable  insects." 

Nothing  is  easier  than  to  find  an  explanation  for 
anything ;  the  only  difficulty  is  to  determine  whether 
the  explanation  is  true.  I  have  just  read  in  an  old 
book  that  the  reason  why  a  particular  kind  of  graft 


I04      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

failed  to  grow  was  because  of  the  *^  disappointment 
of  the  sap."  I  laughed  at  the  expression  ;  and  yet 
is  it  not  as  scientific  as  to  say  that  the  hairs  exist 
to  keep  the  crowfoot  warm  or  that  the  sumac 
has  poison  to  protect  it  from  its  enemies  ?  The 
teacher  may  as  well  have  said  that  Jimmie  Brown 
has  freckles  so  that  the  sun  will  not  tan 
his  skin ;  and  the  statement  would  be  hard  to 
disprove. 

The  other'day  a  teacher  asked  me  whether  it  is 
not  true  that  the  cactus  has  spines  in  order  to  protect 
it  from  browsing  animals.  I  told  her  that  I  did  not 
know.  As  I  was  a  stranger  to  her,  she  wondered 
at  my  ignorance.  She  wanted  to  know  why  I  did 
not  know.  I  told  her  that  I  had  no  good  evidence 
that  an  animal  wanted  to  browse  on  a  cactus. 
Perhaps  the  cactus  spines  are  older  than  browsing 
animals.  Perhaps  there  was  some  special  condition 
or  reason  in  geologic  time.  Perhaps  the  spines 
were  in  some  way  the  incidental  result  of  the 
contraction  of  the  plant  body,  which  contraction 
was  associated  with  the  necessity  of  reducing  the 
evaporating  surface  in  an  arid  climate.  Perhaps  a 
hundred  things.  She  was  surprised  that  I  had  to 
go  into  geologic  time  to  bury  my  ignorance.  She 
wanted  cause  and  effect  side  by  side  and  in  the 
present.  Then  she  could  see  them.  It  is  a  bother 
to  look  behind  for  causes. 

This  is  a  typical  case.  This  attitude  toward  nature 
comes  almost  daily  to  the  teacher ;  in  fact,  it  some- 
times comes  from  the  teacher.  The  mischief  is 
increased  by  many  popular  books  on  science,  and 


A    "USE'*    FOR    EVERYTHING?     105 

some  of  these  books  have  been  written  by  persons 
who  have  done  noble  work  for  truth. 

This  is  one  of  the  greatest  faults  with  the  popular 
outlook  on  nature  —  the  belief  that  every  feature 
of  plant  or  animal  has  a  distinct  use  in  the  present 
time  and  that  one  has  only  to  look  to  see  what  that 
use  is.  Persons  often  look  at  the  little  things  and 
miss  the  big  ones.  They  look  for  the  hairs  and 
miss  the  plant.  They  see  the  unusual  and  rare  and 
overlook  the  common.  I  wish  that  people  might 
learn  to  see  dandelions. 

Having  seen  a  thing  of  which  the  function  is  not 
evident,  they  assume  a  condition  and  jump  at  a 
conclusion.  A  plant  has  poison  ;  various  creatures 
eat  plants ;  the  creatures  are  killed  by  poison : 
therefore  the  plant  has  poison  to  protect  itself  from 
the  creatures.  Now,  it  may  even  be  true  that  the 
poison  does  protect  the  plant,  but  there  is  no  proof 
thereby  that  the  poison  was  produced  for  that 
purpose.  The  physiologist  may  find  that  the  poison 
in  the  given  case  is  merely  a  waste  product  of  some 
chemical  metabolism,  and  that  the  plant  is  fortunate 
in  getting  rid  of  it.  If  the  plant  is  now  and  then 
protected,  the  result  is  only  an  incident.  If 
it  should  appear  that  one  kind  of  plant,  by  natural 
selection,  has  developed  poison  in  order  to  protect 
itself,  the  fact  would  be  spread  abroad  in  book  and 
magazine,  but  it  would  not  be  stated  that  it  was  one 
case  out  of  a  thousand.  The  exception  is  enlarged 
into  the  rule.  Persons  like  to  write  about  perfect 
adaptation  of  means  to  ends,  without  a  slip  or  break 
in  the  process.     A  teacher  brought   a  flower  and 


io6      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

asked  what  mechanism  it  had  to  insure  cross- 
polHnation.  I  told  her  that  I  was  not  aware  that  it 
had  any;  and  she  was  surprised.  I  wish  that 
somebody  would  write  a  book  about  misfits  in 
nature. 

No  one  knows  what  spines  and  thorns  are  ^4or,  " 
and  the  true  naturalist  does  not  ask  the  question. 
He  wants  to  know  how  they  came  to  be.  How  did 
they  originate  ?  What  is  their  significance  in  the 
development  of  this  particular  race  ?  And  he  sets 
to  work  to  find  out.  He  cannot  find  out  as  he 
rides  by  on  his  horse — especially  if  he  rides  a 
hobby-horse. 

Truth  is,  this  everything-has-a-use  dogma  is  in 
part  a  reaction  from  the  teachings  of  Darwin  and 
his  followers.  People  want  to  believe  in  definite, 
final,  set  events.  The  dogma  of  special  creation 
was  overthrown.  Things  have  persisted  because 
of  natural  selection  —  because  they  were  best  fitted 
to  persist.  The  result,  in  many  cases,  is  perfect 
adaptation  of  every  organ  and  attribute.  There 
followed  a  special  literature  on  adaptation  and 
mimicry  and  the  like.  The  examples  may  all  have 
been  true,  but  one  result  has  been  to  lead  persons 
to  look  for  adaptations  and  mimicry  where  there 
may  be  none.  What  did  it  matter  if  there  is  no 
special  creation?  —  there  is  complete  and  universal 
adaptation,  and  our  notions  of  what  ought  to  be  are 
verified. 

But,  some  one  will  say,  if  there  is  natural  selection 
and  survival  of  the  fittest,  adaptation  must  follow  as 
a  consequence.     Yes;  but  it  does  not  follow  that 


A   "USE"    FOR    EVERYTHING?     107 

every  part  or  feature  of  the  organism  is  specially 
adapted.  A  strong  feature  may  carry  other  features 
which  are  merely  innocuous  or  even  harmful,  as  a 
horse  carries  a  rider;  and  then,  if  unfit  features 
tend  to  pass  away,  these  features  are  misfits  until 
they  have  disappeared. 


.-Mt*i*'~'-.^     • 


"«ecK 


'"iftS!^ 


^  (  THE  NEW  HUNTING    ) 


"*>-. 


The  world  is  full  of  animals  and  plants.  Every 
animal  and  plant  has  the  power  to  multiply  itself 
many  fold.  Every  one  contends  for  an  opportunity 
to  live. 

This  contention  forces  the  individual  to  live  for 
itself.  Self-preservation,  it  is  said,  is  the  first  law 
of  nature.  The  animal  appropriates  food,  usurps 
territory,  kills  and  even  devours  its  contestants. 
It  kills  because  it  must.  It  is  goaded  by  the  whip 
of  necessity.  To  live  is  the  highest  desire  that  it 
knows.     Its  acts  need  no  justification. 

Man  also  is  an  animal.  He  has  come  up  from 
the  world-fauna.  On  his  way  he  contended  hand 
to  hand  with  the  other  animal  creation.  He  killed 
from  necessity  of  obtaining  food.  As  he  arose 
above  his  contestants,  this  necessity  became  less 
urgent.  He  has  now  obtained  dominion,  but  he  is 
not  yet  fully  emancipated  from  the  necessity  of 
taking  life.  Perhaps  complete  emancipation  will 
come. 

The  old  desire  to  kill  —  first  born  of  necessity  — 
still  lingers.  But  now  we  kill  also  for  ^^  sport.'* 
Practically  a  new  motive  has  been  born  into  the 
world  with  man  —  the  desire  to  kill  for  the  sake  of 
killing.  One  generation  of  white  men  is  sufficient 
practically   to   exterminate   the  bison  and   several 

(io8) 


THE    NEW    HUNTING  109 

other  species.  All  this  needs  justification.  The 
lower  creation  is  not  the  plaything  of  man. 

We  are  still  obliged  to  kill  for  our  necessities. 
We  must  secure  food  and  raiment.  More  and 
more  we  are  rearing  the  animals  that  we  would  take 
for  food.  We  give  them  happier  lives.  We 
protect  them  from  the  severities  of  the  struggle  for 
existence.  We  remove  them  from  the  necessities 
of  protecting  themselves  from  violence.  We  take 
our  own.  There  is  no  question  of  morals.  We 
give  that  we  may  take ;  and  we  take  because  we 
must. 

To  kill  for  mere  sport  is  a  very  different  matter: 
it  lies  outside  the  realm  of  struggle  for  existence. 
Too  often  there  is  not  even  the  justification  of  fair 
play.  Usually  the  hunter  exposes  himself  to  no 
danger  from  the  animal  that  he  would  kill.  He 
takes  no  risks.  He  has  the  advantage  of  long-range 
weapons.  There  is  no  combat.  Over  on  the  lake 
shore  are  great  cones  of  ice,  built  up  by  the 
accretions  of  the  waves.  Several  stalwart  men  have 
skulkedbehind  them  andlie  secure  fromobservation. 
A  little  flock  of  birds,  unsuspecting,  unprotected, 
harming  no  man,  obeying  the  laws  of  their  kind, 
skims  across  the  water.  The  guns  discharge.  The 
whole  flock  falls,  the  mangled  birds  struggling  and 
crying,  and  tainting  the  water  with  their  blood  as 
they  are  carried  away  on  the  waves,  perhaps  to  die 
on  the  shores.  There  is  a  shout  of  victory.  Surely, 
man  is  the  king  of  beasts  I 

But  there  is  another  and  fairer  side  than  this. 
The  lack  of  feeling  for  wounded  animals  is  often 


no       THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

thoughtlessness.  The  satisfaction  in  hunting  is 
often  the  joy  of  skill  in  marksmanship,  the  pleasure 
of  woodcraft,  the  enthusiasm  of  being  out-of-doors, 
the  keen  delight  in  discovering  the  haunts  and  ways 
of  the  nature-folk.  Many  a  hunter  finds  more 
pleasure  in  all  these  things  than  in  the  game  that 
he  bags.  The  great  majority  of  hunters  are  gentle 
and  large-hearted  men.  They  are  the  first  to 
discourage  mere  wantonness  and  brutality.  Under 
their  hand,  certain  animals  are  likely  to  increase, 
because  they  eliminate  the  rapacious  species.  To 
the  true  sportsman  hunting  is  not  synonymous  with 
killing.  It  is  primarily  a  means  of  enjoying  the  free 
world  of  the  Out-of-doors.  This  nature-spirit  is 
growing,  and  there  are  many  ways  of  knowing  the 
fields  and  woods.  The  camera  is  competing  with 
the  trap  and  gun. 

I  must  not  be  understood  as  opposed  to 
hunting  with  the  gun  or  the  rod.  Every  man  has 
a  right  to  decide  these  questions  for  himself.  I 
wish  only  to  suggest  that  there  are  other  ideals. 
I  wish  to  point  out  the  tendency  to  know  things 
as  they  live  and  for  what  they  are.  There  was  a 
time  when  animals  were  known  mostly  in  museums, 
or  in  books  that  smelled  of  museums.  We  now 
know  them  in  woods  and  fields.  We  know  what 
they  do,  as  well  as  what  they  are.  Making  pictures 
from  stuflfed  specimens  will  soon  be  a  thing  of  the 
past.  Read  any  book  of  natural  history  of  fifty 
years  ago;  then  read  one  of  to-day.  Note  the  road 
by  which  we  have  come  :  this  may  color  your  own 
attitude  toward  the  nature-world. 


THE    NEW    HUNTING  m 

A  new  literature  has  been  born.  It  Is  the 
literature  of  the  Out-of-doors.  It  is  written  from 
the  world  viewpoint,  rather  than  from  the  study 
viewpoint.  Man  is  not  the  only,  nor  even  the 
chief,  actor.  Even  the  stories  of  animals  of  the  old 
time  do  not  have  the  flavor  of  this  bright  new 
literature.  Not  so  very  long  ago  animal  stories 
were  often  told  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  a 
moral  —  they  were  self-conscious.  Now  they  are 
told  because  they  are  worth  telling.  The  real 
moral  is  the  interest  in  the  animal  and  the  way  in 
which  it  contrives  to  live,  not  in  some  extraneous 
literary  appendage  that  tries  to  make  an  application 
to  human  conduct.  No  longer  can  one  write  a 
good  nature-piece  until  he  has  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  animal  or  plant  in  the  wild,  and  has  tried  to 
put  himself  in  its  place.  Perhaps  the  old  school  of 
literary  effort  is  not  losing  ground  ;  but  it  is  certain 
that  the  new  is  gaining.  The  new  literature  is 
founded  on  specific  technical  knowledge,  but  it 
embraces  all  the  human  sympathies.  It  is  the 
outcome  of  the  study  of  objects  and  phenomena. 
The  first  product  was  scientific  literature.  The 
second  is  the  lucid  resourceful  nature-writing  of  the 
present  day.  There  are  new  standards  of  literary 
excellence. 

The  awakening  interest  in  the  nature-world  is 
strongly  reflected  in  the  game  laws  —  for  these  laws 
are  only  an  imperfect  expression  of  the  growing 
desire  to  let  everything  live  its  own  life.  The 
recent  revulsion  of  feeling  against  the  shooting  of 
trapped  pigeons,  as  expressed  in  agitations  before 


112      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

state  legislatures,  is  an  excellent  example  in  point. 
It  is  gratifying  that  a  prominent  place  in  the 
discussions  for  good  game  laws  is  taken  by  sportsmen 
themselves.  It  is  recognized  that  hunting  for  sport 
must  be  kept  within  bounds,  and  that  it  must  rise 
above  mere  slaughter  of  defenseless  animals. 

Another  expression  of  this  growing  sympathy  is 
exhibited  in  the  reservation  of  certain  areas  in 
which  animals  are  to  be  unmolested.  It  is  a  most 
significant  fact  that  while  many  country  regions  are 
practically  shot  clean  of  animal  life,  sometimes  even 
to  songbirds,  the  parks  and  other  public  properties 
in  cities  often  support  this  wild  life  in  abundance. 
Usually  it  is  easier  to  study  squirrels  and  many 
kinds  of  birds  in  the  city  parks  than  in  their  native 
wilds.  To  this  awakening  interest  in  the  preserva- 
tion of  animals  is  now  added  the  desire  to  preserve 
the  wild  flowers.  The  future  will  see  the  wild 
animals  and  plants  safely  ensconced  in  those  areas 
that  lie  beyond  the  reach  of  cultivated  fields ;  and 
these  things  will  be  the  heritage  of  the  people,  not 
of  the  hunter  and  collector  alone. 

This  desire  to  protect  and  preserve  our  native 
animals  is  well  expressed  in  President  Roosevelt's 
reference  to  the  subject  when  discussing  the  forest 
preserves  in  his  first  message  to  Congress :  ^'  Certain 
of  the  forest  reserves  should  also  be  made  preserves 
for  the  wild  forest  creatures.  All  of  the  reserves 
should  be  better  protected  from  fires.  Many  of 
them  need  special  protection  because  of  the  great 
injury  done  by  live  stock,  above  all  by  sheep.  The 
increase    in    deer,    elk   and    other  animals    in    the 


THE    NEW    HUNTING  113 

Yellowstone  Park  shows  what  may  be  expected 
when  other  mountain  forests  are  properly  protected 
by  law  and  properly  guarded.  Some  of  those  areas 
have  been  so  denuded  of  surface  vegetation  by 
overgrazing  that  the  ground-breeding  birds,  includ- 
ing grouse  and  quail,  and  many  mammals,  including 
deer,  have  been  exterminated  or  driven  away.  .  .  . 
In  cases  where  natural  conditions  have  been  re- 
stored for  a  few  years,  vegetation  has  again  carpeted 
the  ground,  birds  and  deer  are  coming  back,  and 
hundreds  of  persons,  especially  from  the  immediate 
neighborhood,  come  each  summer  to  enjoy  the 
privilege  of  camping.  Some  at  least  of  the  forest 
reserves  should  afford  perpetual  protection  to  the 
native  fauna  and  flora,  safe  havens  of  refuge  to  our 
rapidly  diminishing  wild  animals  of  the  larger  kinds, 
and  free-camping  grounds  for  the  ever-increasing 
numbers  of  men  and  women  who  have  learned  to 
find  rest,  health  and  recreation  in  the  splendid 
forests  and  flower-clad  meadows  of  our  mountains. 
The  forest  reserves  should  be  set  apart  forever  for 
the  use  and  benefit  of  our  people  as  a  whole,  and 
not  sacrificed  to  the  short-sighted  greed  of  a  few.'* 
The  enlargement  of  our  sympathies  is  also  well 
reflected  in  the  many  societies  that  aim  to  lessen 
cruelty  to  animals.  This  movement  is  an  outgrowth 
of  the  rapidly  growing  feeling  of  altruism  —  the 
interest  in  others  —  which,  in  the  religious  sphere, 
has  ripened  into  the  missionary  spirit  and  into 
toleration.  The  prevention  of  cruelty  to  animals  is 
of  more  consequence  to  man  than  to  the  animals. 
They  suffer  less  than  we.     Perhaps  the   movement 


114      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

is  in  danger  here  and  there  of  degenerating  into 
mere  sentimentalism ;  but,  on  the  whole,  it  is  sane 
and  potent,  because  it  measures  our  increasing 
sensitiveness. 

Hunting  to  kill  is  not  necessarily  cruel.  The 
best  hunting  is  that  which  kills  quickly.  The 
poorest  —  for  both  the  hunted  and  the  hunter  —  is 
that  which  prolongs  the  struggle.  The  "gamey" 
fish  is  the  one  most  liked  by  anglers.  The  ^^  sport" 
of  catching  him  depends  on  his  desperate  struggle 
for  life;  and  this  struggle  is  often  prolonged  that 
the  excitement  may  be  greater!  Nature  herself 
could  be  indicted  for  cruelty  were  not  her  practices 
dictated  by  inevitable  conditions ;  but  this  fact  does 
not  release  man,  who  acts  largely  as  a  moral  agent. 
In  nature,  many  animals  meet  violent  or  tragic 
deaths.  The  bird  of  passage  that  cannot  keep  up 
with  its  fellows  is  caught  by  the  hawk  or  owl.  The 
weaklings  and  the  stragglers  are  taken.  Raise  the 
curtain  of  night  and  behold  the  tragedies.  Where 
are  the  graves  of  the  unfit? 

The  practices  of  any  age  are  but  the  expressions 
of  the  needs  and  motives  of  that  age.  Much  of  the 
hunting  is  dictated  by  the  desire  of  profits  in  money, 
and  these  profits  often  depend  on  fashion.  Mere 
fashion  has  been  the  cause  of  the  practical  exter- 
mination of  species  of  birds ;  but  public  opinion  was 
finally  aroused  to  check  it.  The  demand  for  furs 
is  leading  to  similar  results.  Many  other  species 
naturally  perish  before  the  continued  onslaught  of 
civilization,  by  means  of  which  the  native  haunts 
are    destroyed.     We    must  protect  that  which  we 


THE    NEW    HUNTING  115 

need  to  grow  for  our  own  use.  It  is  inevitable  that 
the  animal  creation,  as  a  whole,  shall  recede  as  the 
earth  is  subdued  to  man.  But  too  often  this  creation 
has  fallen  long  before  its  time  — fallen  as  a  result  of 
unnecessary  killing. 

All  the  foregoing  remarks  are  meant  to  illustrate 
what  I  believe  to  be  an  enlarging  vision  respecting 
our  own  place  in  the  world.  The  point  of  view  is 
shifting.  The  spiritual  factors  have  increasingly 
more  influence  in  shaping  the  course  of  our  evolution. 
The  emancipation  of  which  I  have  spoken  —  the 
release  from  the  necessity  of  taking  life  —  will  come, 
if  at  all,  as  a  result  of  our  enlarging  spiritual  outlook 
rather  than  as  a  result  of  agitations  concerned  with 
questions  of  diet  or  with  any  mere  propaganda.  It 
is  said,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  conformation  of 
man's  teeth  shows  that  a  flesh  diet  is  necessary,  but 
this  only  indicates  what  our  evolution  has  been,  not 
what  it  will  be.  The  evolution  will  come  slowly, 
but  whatever  it  may  be,  we  have  reason  to  believe 
that  our  points  of  contact  with  the  nature-world 
will  strengthen  and  multiply. 


VI 


THE   POETIC   INTERPRETATION  OF  NATURE 

Merrily  swinging  on  brier  and  weed, 

Near  to  the  nest  of  his  little  dame, 
Over  the  mountain-side  or  mead, 

Robert  of  Lincoln  is  telling  his  name : 
Bob-o'-Hnk,  bob-o'-Hnk, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
Snug  and  safe  is  that  nest  of  ours, 
Hidden  among  the  summer  flowers. 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Robert  of  Lincoln  is  gaily  drest. 

Wearing  a  bright  black  wedding-coat ; 
White  are  his  shoulders  and  white  his  crest. 
Hear  him  call  in  his  merry  note : 
Bob-o'-Hnk,  bob-o'-Hnk, 
Spink,  spank,  spink  ; 
Look  what  a  nice  new  coat  is  mine, 
Sure  there  was  never  a  bird  so  fine. 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Robert  of  Lincoln's  Quaker  wife. 

Pretty  and  quiet  with  plain  brown  wings, 

Passing  at  home  a  patient  life. 

Broods  in  the  grass  while  her  husband  sings  : 

(ii6) 


INTERPRETATION    OF    NATURE  117 

Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 

Spink,  spank,  spink; 
Brood,  kind  creature  ;  you  need  not  fear 
Thieves  and  robbers  while  I  am  here. 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Modest  and  shy  as  a  nun  is  she  ; 

One  weak  chirp  is  her  only  note. 
Braggart  and  prince  of  braggarts  is  he, 
Pouring  boasts  from  his  httle  throat  : 
Bob-o'-Hnk,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink ; 
Never  was  I  afraid  of  man ; 
Catch  me,  cowardly  knaves,  if  you  can! 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Six  white  eggs  on  a  bed  of  hay. 

Flecked  with  purple,  a  pretty  sight  1 
There  as  the  mother  sits  all  day, 

Robert  is  singing  with  all  his  might: 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink ; 
Nice  good  wife,  that  never  goes  out, 
Keeping  house  while  I  frolic  about. 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Soon  as  the  Httle  ones  chip  the  shell. 
Six  wide  mouths  are  open  for  food ; 

Robert  of  Lincoln  bestirs  him  well. 
Gathering  seeds  for  the  hungry  brood. 


ii8       THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 

Spink,  spank,  spink; 
This  new  life  is  likely  to  be 
Hard  for  a  gay  young  fellow  like  me. 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Robert  of  Lincoln  at  length  is  made 

Sober  with  work,  and  silent  with  care ; 
Off  is  his  holiday  garment  laid, 
Half  forgotten  that  merry  air: 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
Nobody  knows  but  my  mate  and  I 
Wheie  our  nest  and  our  nestlings  lie. 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Summer  wanes  ;  the  children  are  grown ; 

Fun  and  frolic  no  more  he  knows ; 
Robert  of  Lincoln's  a  humdrum  crone ; 
Off  he  flies,  and  we  sing  as  he  goes : 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
When  you  can  pipe  that  merry  old  strain, 
Robert  of  Lincoln,  come  back  again. 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 

From  Complete  Works  of  William  Cullen  Bryant. 
Published  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co. 

This  was  the  exercise  that  the  children  were 
having  as  I  visited  the  school  on  a  June  morning. 
It  was   the   new   old    song    by  which    Bryant   is 


INTERPRETATION    OF    NATURE  119 

remembered  of  the  country  boy  and  girl.  The 
children  had  seen  and  studied  the  bobolink.  They 
had  heard  the  liquid  rattle  of  his  song.  They  had 
seen  the  nest  in  the  grass.  They  had  watched  for 
the  Quaker  wife.  They  had  seen  the  purple-flecked 
eggs.  They  knew  that  Robert  of  Lincoln  would 
soon  leave  them.  The  poem  touched  their  hearts, 
and  they  knew  the  bobolink  better. 

With  enthusiasm  I  related  the  experience  to  my 
friend,  the  teacher  of  natural  history  in  the  college. 
He  checked  my  ardor.  He  saw  only  danger  in 
such  teaching.  It  tends  to  looseness  of  ideas.  It 
makes  the  mind  discursive.  It  does  not  fix  and 
fasten  the  attention  on  the  subject-matter.  It  is 
unscientific.  The  child  could  learn  poetry  by  the 
yard,  he  said,  and  yet  not  know  how  many  toes  the 
bobolink  has,  nor  the  shape  and  size  of  its  wings. 
The  pupil  gains  no  comparative  knowledge  of  bird 
with  bird.  The  poem  is  untrue.  The  bobolink  is 
not  ^^  drest  '^  :  he  has  no  clothes.  He  has  no  wife  : 
he  is  mated,  not  wed. 

I  could  only  reply  that  the  bobolink's  toes  have 
little  relation  to  men's  lives,  however  much  they 
may  have  to  bobolinks'  lives  ;  but  the  bobolink  may 
mean  much  to  men's  lives.  To  a  man  studying 
ornithology— and  I  wish  there  were  more— the  toes 
are  important ;  but  these  men  are  desirous  of 
technical  information,  whereas  I  am  seeking  a  fresh 
and  firmer  hold  on  life.  To  be  sure,  I  should 
study  the  bobolink  before  I  studied  the  poem ;  but 
I  should  want  a  real  bobolink,  not  a  stufTed 
specimen.     If  I  were  obliged  to  choose  between 


I20      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

lessons  on  stuffed  bobolinks  and  the  poem,  I  should 
take  the  poem  :  there  is  more  bobolink  in  it. 

I  like  Bryant's  lyric  because  it  catches  so  much 
of  the  life  of  a  bobolink.  A  scientific  description 
could  tell  the  story  better,  but  only  ornithologists 
read  scientific  descriptions.  Yet  I  have  always 
wished  that  the  poet  had  told  the  whole  story. 
The  poem  tells  us  of  the  life  of  the  bobolink  ;  but 
after  the  breeding  season  is  past,  the  birds  gather 
in  flocks  in  the  rice-fields  and  reeds  of  the  South 
and  are  then  known  as  rice-birds  and  reed-birds. 
In  great  numbers  they  are  slaughtered  for  the 
market,  and  thereby  the  bobolink  does  not  become 
an  abundant  species  in  the  North.    May  we  not  add  : 

Far  in  the  South  he  gathers  his  clans, 

Nor  thinks  of  the  regions  of  ice ; 
Too  early  yet  for  housekeeping  plans. 
He  rev'ls  and  gluttons  in  fields  of  rice. 
Rice-bird,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink ; 
Hunter  is  waiting  under  the  bloom, 
Robert  of  Lincoln  falls  to  his  doom. 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 

Spring  comes  :  swinging  on  brier  and  weed, 

Near  to  the  nest  of  his  little  dame. 
Over  the  mountain-side  and  mead. 

Another  proud  groom  is  telling  his  name  : 
Bob-o'-link,  bob-o'-link, 
Spink,  spank,  spink; 
The  meadow  belongs  to  wife  and  me — 
Life  is  as  happy  as  life  can  be. 

Chee,  chee,  chee. 


INTERPRETATION    OF    NATURE  121 

This  is  the  age  of  fact,  and  we  are  proud  of  it. 
But  it  may  be  also  the  age  of  the  imagination. 
Fact  is  not  to  be  worshiped.  The  Hfe  that  is 
devoid  of  imagination  is  dead  ;  it  is  tied  to  the 
earth.  There  need  be  no  divorce  of  fact  and 
fancy ;  they  are  only  the  poles  of  experience. 
What  is  called  the  scientific  method  is  only 
imagination  trained  and  set  within  bounds.  Com- 
pared with  the  whole  mass  of  scientific  attainment, 
mere  fact  is  but  a  minor  part,  after  all.  Facts  are 
bridged  by  imagination.  They  are  tied  together 
by  the  thread  of  speculation.  The  very  essence  of 
science  is  to  reason  from  the  known  to  the 
unknown. 

There  can  be  no  objection  to  the  poetic  inter- 
pretation of  nature.  It  is  essential  only  that  the 
observation  be  correct  and  the  inference  reasonable, 
and  that  we  allow  it  only  at  proper  times.  In 
teaching  science  we  may  confine  ourselves  to 
scientific  formulas,  but  in  teaching  nature  we  may 
admit  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  letter.  If  I  were 
making  a  teacher's  curriculum  for  the  study  of 
nature,  I  should  include  a  course  in  English  poetry. 
With  pupils,  however,  one  must  be  careful  to  have 
the  poem  exactly  appropriate  to  the  subject  and 
the  occasion.  One  may  not  make  a  list  of  poems 
that  are  always  to  be  used  by  teachers  of  nature- 
study  for  specified  topics.  The  choice  of  the  poem 
should  lie  with  the  particular  teacher  or  the  pupils. 
These  poems  should  be  used  sparingly,  and  not  at 
all  when  the  teacher  himself  does  not  have 
poetic   feeling   by   means    of    which    to    interpret 


122      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

them.     Better  no   poems   whatever  than  to   have 
manufactured  sentiment. 

In  our  day  of  science  people  seem  to  be  afraid 
of  sentiment.  The  scientist  forbids  us  to  personify  ; 
and  this  is  well.  But  this  spirit  may  be  carried  so 
far  as  to  forbid  figures  of  speech  and  to  condemn 
parables.  Speech  cannot  be  literally  accurate. 
Even  astronomers  say  that  the  sun  sets,  but  we 
know  that  it  does  not.  The  trouble  with  much  of 
the  sentiment  is  that  it  gives  us  a  wrong  point  of 
view.  To  say  that  a  potato-plant  works  all  the 
season  in  order  to  provide  for  its  offspring  the  next 
year  is  said  to  give  a  wrong  conception  of  the  plant 
because  it  implies  motive.  But  does  this  picture 
mislead  any  one  ?  Everybody  knows  that  a  potato- 
plant  has  no  brains.  Everybody  knows  that  the 
statement  conveys  a  truth.  Under  certain  conditions 
I  believe  that  it  is  perfectly  justifiable.  If  it  is  not, 
then  I  may  not  say  that  a  potato  has  eyes.  Much 
of  the  objection  to  statements  of  this  kind  is  mere 
quibbling.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  all  such 
allegories  must  be  true  in  spirit  and  in  their 
teaching.  Much  of  the  current  writing  of  plants 
and  animals,  by  which  human  motives  are  implied, 
is  productive  of  harm ;  but  we  should  distinguish 
between  metaphor,  or  mere  literary  license,  and  an 
untrue  point  of  view.  The  ultimate  test  is  whether 
the  reader  is  lead  to  believe  what  is  not  true.  An 
animal  or  a  plant  may  be  represented  as  telling  its 
own  story  without  misleading  any  one,  even  as  a 
character  in  a  novel  may  speak  in  the  first  person  ; 
we    need    not    imply  human    motives    or    human 


INTERPRETATION    OF    NATURE  123 

points  of  view  in  these  cases :  there  remain  only 
the  questions  as  to  whether  this  is  really  good 
literary  taste,  and  whether  it  is  the  most  efficient 
way  to  reach  the  audience  for  which  it  is  intended. 
In  general,  a  direct  and  lucid  presentation,  without 
circumlocution,  is  to  be  preferred  ;  and  this  direct 
method  allows  of  the  full  expression  of  sentiment 
and  the  poetic  impulse. 

I  protest  against  that  teaching  of  nature  which 
is  mere  sentimentalism,  which  makes  the  "goody- 
goody'^  part  of  the  work  so  prominent  that  it 
becomes  the  child's  point  of  view.  Interest  in 
things  themselves  should  be  the  primary  motive ; 
sentiment  comes  chiefly  as  a  result.  But  if  there 
is  danger  of  making  sentiment  too  prominent,  there 
may  be  equal  danger  in  insisting  on  a  perfunctory 
scientific  point  of  view. 

The  spirit  of  science  lends  itself  well  to  song. 
The  concrete  is  not  unpoetic.  If  in  this  day  we 
apostrophize  and  personify  nature  less,  we  have 
improved  in  the  spirit  and  intimacy  of  our  song. 
The  point  of  view  gradually  has  shifted  from 
human  interest  in  natural  things  to  the  things 
themselves. 


VII 

AN  OUTLOOK  ON  WINTER 

In  the  bottom  of  the  valley  is  a  brook  that  saun- 
ters between  oozing  banks.  It  falls  over  stones  and 
dips  under  fences.  It  marks  an  open  place  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  and  the  trees  and  soft  herbs  bend 
their  branches  into  the  sunlight.  The  hang-bird 
swings  her  nest  over  it.  Mossy  logs  are  crumbling 
into  it.  There  are  still  pools  where  the  minnows 
play.  The  brook  runs  away  and  away  into  the 
forest.  As  a  boy  I  explored  it  but  never  found  its 
source.  It  came  somewhere  from  the  Beyond  and 
its  name  was  Mystery. 

The   mystery   of   this   brook   was   its   changing 

moods.    It  had  its  own  way  of  recording  the  passing 

of  the  weeks  and  months.     I  remember  never  to 

have  seen  it  twice  in  the  same  mood,  nor  to  have 

got  the  same  lesson  from  it  on  two  successive  days ; 

yet,  with   all   its    variety,  it   always   left   that  same 

feeling  of  mystery  and  that  same  vague  longing  to 

follow  to  its  source  and  to  know  the  great  world 

that  I  was  sure  must  lie  beyond.     I  felt  that  the 

brook  was  greater  and  wiser  than  I.     It  became  my 

teacher.     I  wondered  how  it  knew  when   March 

came,    and    why    its    round    of    life    recurred   so 

regularly  with  the  returning  seasons.     I  remember 

that  I  was  anxious  for  the  spring  to  come,  that  I 

(124) 


AN  OUTLOOK  ON  WINTER         125 

might  see  it  again.  I  longed  for  the  earthy  smell 
when  the  snow  settled  away  and  left  bare  brown 
margins  along  its  banks.  I  watched  for  the  suckers 
that  came  up  from  the  river  to  spawn.  I  made  a 
note  when  the  first  frog  peeped.  I  waited  for  the 
unfolding  spray  to  soften  the  bare  trunks.  I 
watched  the  greening  of  the  banks  and  looked 
eagerly  for  the  bluebird  when  I  heard  his  curling 
note  somewhere  high  in  the  air. 

Yet,  with  all  my  familiarity  with  this  brook,  I  did 
not  know  it  in  the  winter.  Its  pathway  up  into  the 
winter  woods  was  as  unexplored  as  the  arctic 
regions.  Somehow,  it  was  not  a  brook  in  the 
winter  time.  It  was  merely  a  dreary  waste,  as  cold 
and  as  forbidding  as  death.  The  winter  was  only 
a  season  of  waiting,  and  spring  was  always  late. 

Many  years  have  come  and  gone  since  then.  My 
affection  for  the  brook  gave  way  to  a  study  of  plants 
and  animals  and  stones.  For  years  I  was  absorbed 
in  phenomena.  But  now  mere  phenomena  and 
things  have  slipped  into  a  secondary  place,  and  the 
old  boyhood  slowly  reasserts  itself.  I  am  sure  that 
I  know  the  brook  the  better  because  I  know  more 
about  the  things  that  live  in  its  little  world  ;  yet 
that  same  mystery  pervades  it  and  there  is  that  same 
longing  for  the  things  that  lie  beyond.  I  remember 
that  in  the  old  days  I  did  not  mind  the  rain  and 
the  sleet  when  visiting  the  brook.  I  was  not 
conscious  that  they  were  not  a  part  of  the  brook 
itself.  It  was  only  when  I  began  to  dress  up  that 
the  rain  annoyed  me.  I  must  make  a  proper 
appearance  before  the  world.     From  that  time,  the 


126       THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

brook  and  I  grew  further  apart.  We  are  coming 
together  again  now.  It  is  no  misdemeanor  to  get 
wet  if  you  feel  that  you  are  not  spoiling  your  clothing. 
One's  happiness  is  largely  a  question  of  clothes. 

But  the  brook  is  one  degree  the  better  now  just 
because  it  remains  a  brook  all  winter.  The  winter 
is  the  best  season  of  the  four  because  there  is  more 
mystery  in  it.  Things  are  hidden ;  yet  there  is  a 
new  and  strange  spirit  in  the  air.  There  are  strange 
bird-calls  in  the  depths  of  the  still,  white  woods. 
There  are  strange  marks  in  the  new-fallen  snow. 
There  are  soft  noises  when  the  snow  drops  from  the 
trees.  There  are  grotesque  figures  on  the  old 
fence.  There  is  the  warm  brown  pathway  of  the 
brook  still  winding  up  between  oozing  banks.  In 
the  spring  there  are  troops  of  flower-gatherers  along 
the  brook.  In  the  summer  there  are  fishers  at  the 
deep  pools.  In  the  fall  there  are  nut-gatherers  and 
aimless  wanderers.  In  the  winter  the  brook  and  I 
are  alone.     We  know. 

Most  of  us,  I  fear,  look  upon  winter  with  some 
feeling  of  dread  and  apprehension.  It  is  to  be 
endured.  This  feeling  is  partly  due  to  the  immense 
change  that  comes  with  the  approach  of  winter. 
The  trees  are  bare.  The  leaves  are  drifting  into 
the  fence-rows.  The  birds  have  flown.  The 
deserted  country  roads  stretch  away  into  leaden 
skies.  The  lines  of  the  landscape  become  hard 
and  sharp.  Gusty  winds  scurry  over  the  fields.  It 
is  the  turn  of  the  year. 

To  many  persons,  however,  the  dread  of  winter, 
or  the  lack  of  enjoyment   in  it,    is  a   question   of 


AN  OUTLOOK  ON  WINTER         127 

weather.  We  speak  of  bad  weather,  as  if  weather 
ever  could  be  bad.  Weather  is  not  a  human 
institution,  and  is  not  to  be  measured  by  human 
standards.  There  is  strength  and  mighty  upHft  in 
the  roaring  winds  that  go  roistering  over  the  winter 
hills.  The  cold  and  the  storm  are  a  part  of  winter, 
as  the  warmth  and  the  soft  rain  are  a  part  of 
summer.  Persons  who  find  happiness  in  the  out- 
of-doors  only  in  what  we  call  pleasant  weather,  do 
not  really  love  nature. 

We  speak  of  winter  as  bare,  but  this  is  only  a 
contrast  with  summer.  In  the  summer  all  things 
are  familiar  and  close;  the  depths  are  covered. 
The  view  is  restricted.  We  see  things  near  by.  In 
the  winter  things  are  uncovered.  Old  objects  have 
new  forms.  There  are  new  curves  in  the  roadway 
through  the  forest.  There  are  steeper  undulations 
in  the  footpath.  Even  when  the  snow  lies  deep  on 
the  earth  the  ground-line  carries  the  eye  into 
strange  distances.  You  look  far  down 'into  the 
heart  of  the  woods.  You  feel  the  strength  and 
resoluteness  of  the  framework  of  the  trees.  You 
see  the  corners  and  angles  of  the  rocks.  You 
discover  the  trail  that  was  lost  in  the  summer. 
You  look  clear  through  the  weedy  tangle.  You 
find  new  knot-holes  in  the  tree-trunks.  You  pene- 
trate to  the  very  depths.     You  analyze,  and  gain 

insight. 

Many  times  in  warm  countries  I  have  been  told 
that  the  climate  has  transcendent  merit  because 
there  is  no  winter.  But  to  me  this  lack  is  its 
disadvantage.     There  are  things  to  see,  things  to 


128      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

do,  things  to  think  about  in  the  winter  as  in  the 
spring.  There  is  interest  in  the  winter  wayside,  in 
the  hibernating  insects,  in  the  fret-work  of  the 
weeds  against  the  snow,  in  the  strong  outHnes  of 
the  trees,  in  the  snow-shapes,  in  the  cold  deep  sky. 
To  many  persons  these  strong  alternations  of  the 
seasons  emphasize  and  punctuate  the  life.  They 
are  the  mountains  and  the  valleys.  The  winter 
makes  the  spring  worth  while. 

The  lesson  is  that  our  interest  in  the  out-of-doors 
should  be  a  perennial  current  that  overflows  from 
the  fountain  that  lies  deep  within  us.  This  interest 
is  colored  and  modified  by  every  passing  season, 
but  fundamentally  it  is  beyond  time  and  place. 
Winter  or  no  winter,  it  matters  not :  the  fields  lie 
beyond. 


PART   III 


INQUIRIES 

SOME   PRACTICAL   INQUIRIES   AND   SOME  WAYS 
OF  ANSWERING  THEM 

Practical  problems  confront  the  teacher. 
However  well  he  may  understand  the  theory  and 
however  fully  he  may  agree  with  it,  a  new  diffi- 
culty arises  every  time  that  he  attempts  to  teach. 
A  child  will  ask  a  question  that  a  philosopher 
cannot  answer ;  but  on  every  question  the  teacher 
must  have  a  point  of  view.  I  frequently  speak  to 
teachers  on  means  of  teaching  nature-study.  For 
the  time  they  are  pupils  and  they  ask  questions : 
I  am  obliged  to  take  a  point  of  view,  and  some  of 
these  opinions  I  have  jotted  down  at  the  time. 
Some  of  them  are  here  reprinted,  not  because 
they  may  be  correct,  but  because  they  may  be 
suggestive. 

How  shall  I  know  what  subjects  to  choose  F 
Let  the  children  select  the  subject  now  and 
then.  Let  them  choose  and  collect  the  specimens. 
But  they  may  bring  things  of  which  the  teacher 
knows  nothing.  So  much  the  better!  These  are 
sometimes  best  for  nature-study.  They  leave  the 
largest  interrogation  point.  From  any  subject  the 
teacher  can  develop  a  fact.  If  he  does  not  know 
the  interpretation,  say  so  ;  the  pupils  will  be  the 
more  interested.     The  teacher  will  not  lose  stand- 

(13O 


132       THE    NATURE-STUDY   IDEA 

ing  by  the  confession,  for  he  is  honest.  People 
lose  standing  by  pretending  to  know  what  they  do 
not  know  and  by  being  caught  at  it.  The  child  is 
relieved  to  know  that  there  is  something  yet  to 
be  discovered.  Verily,  the  subjects  of  which  the 
teacher  does  not  know  are  useful  in  the  teaching; 
and  then,  they  are  so  common ! 

But  if  the  child  choose  the  material^  the  subject  will 
lack  continuity:  what  then  F 

Nature  is  not  consecutive  except  in  her  periods. 
She  puts  things  together  in  a  mosaic.  She  has  a 
brook  and  plants  and  toads  and  bugs  and  the 
weather  all  together.  Because  we  have  put  the 
plants  in  one  book,  the  brooks  in  another,  and 
the  bugs  in  another,  we  have  come  to  think  that 
this  divorce  is  the  logical  and  necessary  order. 
I  wonder  I 

Then  would  you  give  no  heed  to  continuity  F 

How  much  or  how  little  continuity  will  depend 
on  the  teacher  and  the  circumstance.  With 
children,  the  temptation  is  to  have  too  much 
rather  than  too  little  continuity.  First  of  all,  we 
must  develop  the  child's  experience.  The  higher 
the  grade,  the  more  the  topics  may  be  correlated 
and  coordinated.  I  doubt  whether  a  closely  graded 
nature-study  is  really  nature-study  at  all.  For 
children,  I  believe  in  that  continuity  and  consecu- 
tiveness  which  relate  the  subject  to  its  place  and 
season.  In  April,  correlate  the  work  with  the 
opening  of  the  spring;  in  October,  with  the 
coming  of  winter.  Compare  the  nature-study  of 
June    with    that    of    May.     With    living    things, 


INQUIRIES  i->^ 

the  cycle  of  the  year  is  the  fundamental 
continuity. 

How  shall  I  make  a  start  F 

Persons  hesitate,  fearing  that  they  will  make  a 
mistake.  A  teacher  asked  me  the  other  day  where 
he  should  begin  with  nature  work.  He  had  been 
considering  the  matter  for  two  or  three  years,  he 
said,  but  did  not  know  how  to  undertake  it.  I 
replied.  Begin!    Head  end,  tail  end,  in  the  middle 

—  but  Begin  I  There  are  two  essential  epochs  in 
any  enterprise — to  begin,  and  to  get  done. 

For  the  first  lesson,  choose  the  natural  object 
that  you  know  most  about.  Every  teacher  has 
sufficient  knowledge  of  one  subject  to  afford  one 
good  nature-study  lesson.  The  second  lesson  will 
take  care  of  itself. 

If  you  are  thinking  of  starting  ofT  a  movement 
in  all  the  schools  in  a  city  or  a  commissioner's 
district  or  in  a  county,  first  choose  your  teachers. 
Choose  those  that  have  enthusiasm  and  ''good 
spirit''  and  that  are  not  tied  hand  and  foot  to 
customary  methods.     Choose  the  fearless  teachers 

—  the  ones  that  are  anxious  to  arouse  the  pupils 
even  though  they  do  not  do  it  by  the  book.  Then 
give  these  teachers  one  good  lesson  yourself.  Or, 
if  you  cannot  give  the  lesson,  put  in  their  hands 
one  good  nature-study  leaflet.  Choose  the  leaflet 
as  you  would  a  teacher  —  for  cheery  outlook, 
energy,  and  directness  of  expression.  Choose  a 
leaflet  that  sends  the  teacher  directly  to  nature; 
you  do  not  want  stories.  Choose  the  leaflet  that 
has    snap    and    spirit,    not    mere    information.     It 


134 


THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 


should  be  attractive  in  subject-matter  and  in 
mechanical  execution.  Never  put  a  cheaply  illus- 
trated and  poorly  printed  leaflet  before  a  pupil. 
Remember  that  children  are  optimists,  and  that 
they  want  the  best  in  both  teacher  and  leaflet. 
Let  the  teachers  study  the  object  and  the  leaflet 
until  the  subject  is  mastered.  When  the  teacher 
is  full  of  the  subject,  he  cannot  help  teaching. 

If  you  are  fortunate  enough  to  have  the  starting 
of  a  nature-study  movement  for  a  State  or  other 
large  territory,  buy  a  small  quantity  of  one  of  the 
best  leaflets  you  can  find.  If  you  do  not  have  the 
money,  borrow  it.  Send  a  note  to  the  newspapers 
to  the  effect  that  any  teachers  who  wish  to  take  up 
nature-study  work  may  write  you  for  literature  and 
advice.  All  the  rest  will  work  itself  out.  Money 
will  come  from  some  source.  Soon  you  will  be 
publishing  leaflets  of  your  own;  but  be  careful 
who  writes  them. 

Beware  of  putting  your  trust  in  leaflets  alone. 
Follow  them  up  with  correspondence  and  other 
personal  work.  The  leaflet  will  not  work  of  it- 
self. It  will  soon  be  forgotten  unless  you  keep 
the  spirit  and  the  enthusiasm  alive.  Organize  your 
teachers  and  your  children.     Keep  at  it. 

Is  not  subject-matter  the  first  consideration  ? 

Perhaps.  Subject-matter  is  important,  but  the 
teaching  faculty  is  equally  so.  Has  it  ever  oc- 
curred to  you  that  many  of  the  most  useful  school 
text-books  are  made  by  persons  who  are  not 
most  proficient  in  the  subject-matter?  It  were 
better  if  the  books  were  better ;  but  good  or  bad,  they 


INQUIRIES  135 

are  useful  because  they  are  practicable  and  usable. 
The  successful  text-book  is  successful  because  the 
author  knew  the  teacher  and  the  pupil.  Where 
is  the  person  who  knows  equally  well  the  subject- 
matter,  the  teacher,  and  the  pupil? 

Subject-matter  and  enthusiasm  are  all-important 
and  coordinate.  They  are  to  be  obtained  at  the 
same  time.  But  the  importance  of  subject-matter 
is  often  misunderstood.  It  is  not  necessary  that 
one  have  a  wide  range  of  knowledge,  but  rather 
that  he  should  know  one  thing  or  a  few  things 
thoroughly,  so  far  as  he  goes.  It  may  not  be 
necessary  to  go  deep,  but  it  is  important  to  do  well 
as  far  as  we  go. 

Would  you  teach  heatj  light  and  physics  as  nature- 
study  topics? 

No,  not  as  these  subjects  are  ordinarily  taught. 
They  are  usually  taught  as  abstractions,  having 
little  relation  to  the  pupil's  life.  There  are  many 
phenomena  in  these  fields  that  are  within  the 
range  of  the  pupil's  experience,  and  these  may  be 
useful  in  the  hands  of  a  good  teacher.  The  best 
results  will  be  secured,  in  the  hands  of  most 
teachers,  by  confining  nature-study  rather  closely 
to  biological  fields  and  to  those  earth-objects  that 
are  most  intimately  associated,  in  the  child's  mind, 
with  the  fields.  I  would  not  exclude  the  other 
topics;  but  I  once  knew  a  teacher  who  began 
nature-study  for  children  with  a  disquisition  on 
the  conservation  of  energy ! 

Would  you  teach  ''  practical''  and  ''  useful''  things? 

Yes,  if  the  things  are  such  as  appeal  to  the  child 


136       THE  NATURE-STUDY  IDEA 

and  are  adapted  to  the  conditions.  No,  if  they  do 
not  meet  these  requirements.  In  other  words,  I 
should  not  choose  them  merely  because  they  are 
*^  practical"  or  ^'useful  to  man."  I  should  want 
the  child  to  have  a  wider  horizon  and  a  truer  view 
of  nature.  The  prime  requisite  is  that  the  child 
become  interested  in  the  being  itself,  whether  that 
being  chance  to  be  '^injurious"  or  "beneficial." 
Many  of  the  "useful"  and  "harmful"  things  are 
eminently  adapted  to  nature-study  work,  however, 
from  the  fact  that  they  are  common ;  but  we  must 
be  careful  not  to  dwarf  the  sympathies  by  purposely 
confiningour  work  to  those  things  that  have  "use.  " 

Would  you  teach  objects  that  the  child  cannot  see 
and  determine  for  itself  ? 

No  !  Right  here  is  where  much  of  our  nature- 
study  effort  shoots  wide  of  the  mark.  The  child 
should  be  set  at  those  things  that  are  within  its  own 
sphere  and  within  the  range  of  its  powers.  Much 
so-called  nature-study  teaching  is  merely  telling 
the  child  what  some  man  has  found  out.  Bacteria, 
sheep's  brains,  life-histories  of  difficult  insects, 
chemical  changes  in  germination,  pollination, 
yeast,  fermentation — these  and  a  hundred  others 
are  beyond  the  child's  realm. 

How  much  apparatus  do  I  need? 

Perhaps  none;  possibly  some.  The  apparatus 
and  the  teaching  may  easily  be  made  too  perfect. 
Any  elaborate  scheme  or  equipment  is  likely  to 
be  depressing  to  those  who  are  less  fortunately 
situated.  A  laboratory  in  a  teacher's  training- 
school  may  be  so  extensive  and  complete  that  the 


INQUIRIES  137 

graduates  do  not  take  up  efficient  work  for  them- 
selves, feeling  that  they  cannot  do  so  witliout 
much  equipment.  Make  the  most  of  common 
and  simple  subjects  in  nature-study.  Leave  the 
extensive  outfits  to  teachers  of  science.  The  two 
pieces  of  apparatus  that  you  most  need  are  an 
aquarium  for  things  thatlive  in  water  and  a  terrarlum 
for  those  that  live  on  land.  These  become 
**  scenes  of  life  ''  and  supplement  the  outdoors. 

Is  it'' thorough'' F 

''\  do  not  believe  in  your  nature-study  move- 
ment," a  high  school  teacher  said,  "for  It  does 
not  lead  to  thoroughness  in  school  work.'*  I 
asked  her  to  explain  what  she  meant  by  thorough- 
ness. She  took  me  to  her  schoolroom.  It  was  a 
laboratory.  Pupils  of  sixteen  and  seventeen  were 
studying  the  cell.  For  three  weeks  the  pupils  had 
been  working  on  the  cell,  and  they  were  to  con- 
tinue the  work  for  a  month.  This,  she  told  me, 
was  thoroughness.  I  agreed  with  her.  "But  of 
what  value  is  this  knowledge  to  the  pupil?"  I  asked. 
"The  pupil  knows  the  cell,"  she  replied,  "and 
to  know  the  cell  is  to  understand  the  structure 
and  growth  of  the  plant." 

I,  too,  '^believe  in  thoroughness,  but  there  is 
one  thoroughness  of  mere  details  and  another 
thoroughness  of  the  broader  view.  So  far  as 
mere  thoroughness  is  concerned,  one  kind  may  be 
as  perfect  as  the  other.  Thoroughness  consists  only 
in  seeing  something  accurately  and  understanding 
what  it  means.  We  can  never  know  all  that  there 
is    to    be    learned    about    any    object.       Even    the 


138        THE  NATURE-STUDY  IDEA 

months'  work  on  the  cell  was  a  mere  smattering. 
Men  spend  their  lives  in  studying  the  cell,  and 
then  do  not  understand  it.  What  most  school- 
teachers mean  by  thoroughness  is  only  drill  in 
details.  In  its  proper  time  and  place,  I  believe  in 
this  kind  of  drill  in  mere  detail,  but  its  place  is 
not  with  youngsters. 

But  the  great  objection  to  my  teacher's  work 
on  the  cell,  as  I  see  it,  is  the  fact  that  it  means 
little  or  nothing  to  the  pupil's  life  and  is  a  mere 
acquirement.  I  have  little  sympathy  with  what  is 
known  as  '^practical"  knowledge  as  a  means  of 
training  youth — for  that  spirit  which  would  teach 
only  those  things  that  can  be  turned  into  direct 
use  in  money-getting;  but  I  would  put  the  child 
in  contact  with  its  own  life,  and  the  teacher  who 
does  this  teaches  with  thoroughness  whether  he 
teach  much  or  little. 

But  will  not  this  nature-study  be  called  superficial  ? 

No  doubt.  A  botanist  told  me  that  I  was  doing 
superficial  work.  Judged  from  the  view-point  of 
science-teaching,  he  was  right ;  but  I  was  not 
teaching  science.  Judged  from  the  view-point  of 
the  child,  I  hope  he  was  wrong.  One  is  not 
superficial  merely  because  he  does  not  delve  deep 
into  subject-matter.  He  should  try  to  be  accurate 
so  far  as  he  goes.  What  is  superficiality  in  the 
specialist  may  be  commendable  thoroughness  in  the 
layman.  Even  the  specialist  is  satisfied  with  the 
most  superficial  knowledge  in  subjects  outside  his 
specialty.  It  is  notorious  that  his  knowledge  of 
men  and  of  business,  for  example,  is  superficial. 


INQUIRIES  139 

This  charge  of  superficiality  Is  usually  only  the 
opinion  of  a  different  point  of  view.  This  Is  well 
illustrated  in  the  critical  reviews  of  elementary 
text-books  of  science.  Books  that  have  been 
criticized  severely  by  the  scientist  have  been 
accepted  with  enthusiasm  by  the  schoolmaster. 
The  primary  merit  of  a  school-book  lies  in  its 
pedagogy  rather  than  in  its  science.  Statements 
in  such  books  have  two  values — the  teaching  value 
and  the  science  value.  Too  often  the  reviewer 
thinks  only  of  the  science  value. 

Of  course  there  is  danger  of  superficiality. 
There  is  this  danger  in  everything;  but  the  danger 
is  inherent  in  the  person,  not  in  the  subject.  SoHd 
work  is  as  necessary  in  nature-study  as  in  anything 
else.  It  is  not  play.  Professor  E.  B.  TIchener 
writes  as  follows  of  what  he  considers  to  be  the 
three  dangers  in  nature-study:  ^'The  first  is  that, 
in  striving  for  sympathy  with  nature,  we  run  Into 
sentimentality.  The  second  is  that,  in  avoiding 
fairy  tales,  we  run  into  something  ten  times  worse 
— if  indeed  fairy  tales  are  bad  at  all ;  I  mean  a 
pseudo-psychology  of  the  lower  animals.  And  the 
third  is  that,  in  trying  to  be  exceedingly  simple,  we 
become  exceedingly  inaccurate.'' 

^ut  do  you  think  that  this  nature-study  will  make 
investigators  ? 

That  depends  on  what  you  mean  by  an  investi- 
gator. If  you  mean  an  inquirer,  then  I  say  that 
nature-study  will  develop  the  trait  to  perfection. 
If  you  mean  one  who  shall  discover  and  record  new 
truth  by  means  of  painstaking  investigation,  then  I 


I40      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

answer  that  nature-study  will  not  detract  from  such 
attainment.  Neither  does  it  lead  directly  to  that 
end,  and  this  is  its  merit.  To  be  an  investigator  is 
to  be  a  professionalist  or  specialist ;  and  profession- 
alists  should  be  developed  late  in  the  school  life 
from  the  few  who  show  talent  in  that  direction. 
Nature-study  is  for  every  one,  and  therefore  is 
fundamental ;  scientific  investigation  is  for  the  few, 
and  therefore  is  special.  If  nature-study  opens  the 
sympathies  natureward,  it  will  also  increase  the 
appreciation  of  science.  Too  much  are  our  college 
students  taught  to  make  their  reputations  as 
investigators.  In  fact,  the  student  who  goes  to 
college  or  university  to  study  usually  thinks  only  or 
mostly  of  investigation — of  his  science.  I  wonder 
whether  a  science  is  not  worth  acquiring  as  a 
specialty  for  the  sake  of  teaching  it?  May  not 
reputations  be  made  as  high-class  teachers  of  ento- 
mology or  botany,  even  without  ever  publishing  a 
bit  of  technical  research?  It  would  be  better  if 
the  teacher  were  also  the  investigator,  but  there 
are  few  persons  who  can  make  happy  union  of  the 
two  ideals. 

Will  not  this  nature-study  tend  still  further  to  over- 
burden the  school  P 

The  overburdening  of  the  school  hours  is  due  as 
much  to  the  fact  that  the  old  subjects  do  not  give 
way  as  that  new  ones  are  introduced.  The  old 
schools  had  too  little  variety.  Perhaps  the  new 
ones  have  too  much  congestion.  Just  now  we  are 
in  an  intermediate  stage  between  the  old  and  the 
new.     Nature-study  is  not  a  new  subject  clamoring 


INQUIRIES  141 

for  a  place:  it  is  a  rational  and  natural  point  of 
view  asserting  itself.  Its  spirit  will  eventually 
pervade  and  vitalize  all  school  work.  It  is  some 
comfort  to  know  that  our  school  hours  are  now 
full.  They  cannot  be  fuller.  If  other  things  are 
added,  old  subjects  must  drop  out.  It  is  a  struggle 
for  existence.  By  introducing  spontaneity  and 
personal  enthusiasm,  nature-study  should  relieve 
the  congestion  rather  than  increase  it.  If  nature- 
study  becomes  a  burden,  it  is  likely  to  be  because 
the  teacher  tries  to  teach  too  much  and  makes  too 
hard  work  of  it. 

Shall  we  teach  the  child  to  collect^  and  thereby  to 
kill  ? 

How  much  or  how  little  the  collecting  habit 
shall  be  encouraged  must  be  determined  for  each 
case  by  itself ;  but,  in  general,  the  child  should  be 
taught  to  respect  the  life  of  every  creature. 
Collecting  should  be  a  mere  incident,  particularly 
with  very  young  children,  and  it  should  be  encour- 
aged only  when  it  has  some  definite  purpose.  The 
wanton  spirit  always  must  be  suppressed.  I  do  not 
like  to  encourage  young  children  to  ''  catch  things" 
for  the  mere  excitement  of  catching  them.  Study 
the  habits  of  things  as  they  are.  I  have  little 
sympathy  with  the  development  of  mere  senti- 
mentalism  regarding  the  life  of  animals  and  plants; 
but  it  is  a  safe  principle,  with  children,  to  let 
everything  live  its  own  life.  Discourage  the  spirit 
of  the  hunter. 

Would  you  tell  the  child  the  names  of  the  thin^sF 

Certainly,  the  same  as  I  would  tell  him  the  name 


142      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

of  a  new  boy  or  girl.  But  I  should  not  stop  with 
the  name.  Nature-study  does  not  ask  finally  *^  What 
is  the  thing  ?  "  but  ^  ^  How  does  the  thing  live  ? ' '  or 
"What  does  it  do  ?  "  or  ^'  How  did  it  get  here  ?  " 
or  '^  What  can  I  do  with  it  ?  "  The  name  is  only  a 
part  of  the  language  that  enables  us  to  talk  about 
the  object.  Tell  the  name  at  the  outset  and  have 
the  matter  done  with.  Then  go  on  to  vital 
questions. 

Would  you  begin  by  first  reading  to  the  child  about 

nature  ? 

No,  not  in  the  school  as  a  part  of  nature-study 
work.  The  reading  should  come  after,  not  before. 
Order  will  gradually  come  out  of  experience. 
The  child  should  first  come  in  contact  with  things 
rather  than  with  ideas  about  things.  This  is  the 
natural  order.  Animals  come  before  zoology, 
plants  before  botany,  fields  and  rocks  before 
geology,  words  before  language,  religion  before 
theology.     Experience  should  come  before  theory. 

Now  that  there  are  so  many  nature-books^  how  shall 
I  choose  the  most  useful  one  ? 

Only  by  finding  out  what  you  want.  The  multi- 
tude of  books  may  be  confusing,  but  the  greater 
the  number  the  greater  is  the  chance  that  you  will 
find  one  to  your  liking.  Some  persons  deplore 
the  making  of  many  books,  because  they  then 
have  more  difficulty  in  choosing;  but  the  time  has 
already  passed  when  one  book,  or  even  two,  can 
satisfy  a  good  teacher.  The  teacher  may  not  be 
able  to  purchase  several  books,  but  the  school 
should  supply  a  reasonable  number.    In  these  days 


INQUIRIES  143 

the  library  is  part  of  the  equipment  of  the  school. 
There  is  a  general  feeling  that  a  new  book— par- 
ticularly a  new  school-book  —  is  made  for  the 
purpose  of  displacing  some  other  book.  I  once 
wrote  a  book.  It  seemed  to  occupy  a  field  for 
which  one  of  my  best  friends  also  had  written. 
This  friend  wrote  that  perhaps  I  was  right  and  he 
was  wrong.  I  replied  that  I  hoped  I  was  right, 
but  that  this  did  not  imply  that  he  was  wrong.  I 
hope  that  we  are  both  right.  There  is  more  than 
one  point  of  view.  Teachers  sometimes  deplore 
the  number  of  text-books.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
we  need  more  rather  than  fewer;  thereby  is  there 
greater  likelihood  that  every  teacher  can  find  a 
book  to  his  liking.  I  do  not  believe  that  we 
should  have  uniform  methods  of  teaching  any 
subject  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  When  one 
text-book  satisfies  everybody,  it  is  because  every- 
body is  uncritical  and  unpersonal. 

How  shall  I  acquire  sufficient  knowledge  to  enable 
me  to  teach  nature-study  F 

In  the  same  way  that  you  acquire  other  knowl- 
edge— by  means  of  work  and  study.  There  is  no 
way  by  which  you  can  dream  it  or  absorb  it. 
There  is  no  excellence  without  labor.  The  teacher 
should  know  more  than  he  attempts  to  teach. 

Yet,  you  must  not  magnify  the  importance  of 
mere  knowledge.  The  ambition  to  teach  and  the 
love  of  doing  for  a  child  are  the  fundamental 
requisites.  My  own  love  of  nature  was  given 
direction  and  purpose  by  a  teacher  who  knew  very 
little  about  nature  ;  but  she  knew  how  to  touch  a 


144      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

boy's  heart.  Fill  yourself  full  of  some  subject, 
however  small  it  may  be.  When  you  cannot  hold 
it  longer,  teach.  Yes,  you  may  make  mistakes. 
But  every  one  makes  mistakes,  even  with  the  best 
of  pains.  Every  person  who,  by  teaching  or  writ- 
ing, has  helped  the  world  to  a  higher  plane,  has 
said  or  written  errors.  Our  books  contain  them. 
Every  person,  and  particularly  every  teacher, 
should  make  all  effort  to  be  accurate ;  but  if  we 
wait  till  every  possibility  of  error  is  removed,  the 
world's  work  will  never  be  done.  Many  a  man 
sacrifices  his  chances  of  usefulness  for  fear  of 
making  a  mistake.  Many  investigators  are  so 
intent  on  the  accuracy  of  mere  details  that  they 
overlook  the  value  of  enthusiasm  and  point  of 
view. 

The  best  way  to  get  the  knowledge  is  to  work 
for  a  time  with  a  good  teacher ;  but  be  sure  that 
this  teacher  has  enthusiasm  and  human  sympathy 
as  well  as  knowledge.  Read  books  and  leaflets. 
Above  all,  go  into  the  fields  and  study  the  objects 
themselves.  Do  not  wait  until  you  are  thoroughly 
equipped  before  you  begin  to  teach,  else  you  will 
never  begin.  When  you  have  begun  and  your 
pupils  begin  to  press  for  answers,  you  will  learn. 
When  you  discover  that  you  have  made  an  error, 
admit  it  and  acknowledge  it.  The  pupil  will 
respect  you.     Honesty  always  wins  respect. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  you  become  a  scientist 
in  order  to  teach  nature-study.  You  simply  go 
as  far  as  you  know,  and  then  say  to  the  pupil  that 
you  cannot  answer  the  questions  which  you  can- 


INQUIRIES  145 

not.  This  at  once  elevates  you  In  the  pupil's 
estimation,  for  the  pupil  is  convinced  of  your  truth- 
fulness, and  is  made  to  feel — but  how  seldom  is  the 
sensation!  —  that  knowledge  is  not  the  pccuhar 
property  of  the  teacher,  but  is  the  right  of  any  one 
who  seeks  it.  It  sets  the  pupil  investigating  for 
himself.  The  teacher  never  needs  to  apologize 
for  nature.  He  is  teaching  simply  because  he  Is 
an  older  and  more  experienced  pupil  than  his 
pupil  is.  This  is  the  spirit  of  the  teacher  in  the 
colleges  and  universities  to-day.  The  best  teacher 
is  the  one  whose  pupils  the  furthest  outrun  him. 

Is  it  best  to  have  a  professional  nature-study  teacher 
to  go  from  school  to  school  F 

This  is  a  local  and  administrative  problem. 
Ideally,  it  is  best  that  every  teacher  handle  the 
nature-study,  because  nature-study  is  not  merely 
another  subject,  but  it  is  a  spirit  and  an  attitude,  and 
its  effect  is  greatest  when  it  is  most  continuous.  In 
practice,  however,  some  teachers  will  be  sure  to 
develop  special  aptitudes  for  the  work,  and  these 
persons  should  be  retained  for  this  particular  effort. 
The  best  talent  should  be  employed  for  nature- 
study,  as  for  anything  else. 

Should  the  parts  of  a  school-garden  be  apportioned 
to  pupils^  or  should  the  work  be  done  in  common  F 

In  practice  this  becomes  largely  a  question  of 
administration  :  sometimes  one  thing  can  be  done 
and  sometimes  the  other.  Ideally,  the  parts  should 
be  apportioned  in  the  real  laboratory  school- 
garden.  Thereby  is  the  sense  of  proprietorship 
cultivated  and  the  stimulus  of  emulation  aroused. 


146       THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

It  is  always  advisable,  when  it  can  be  arranged,  to 
provide  for  some  culmination  or  focus  of  the 
season's  work  in  the  nature  of  a  flower-show  or 
vegetable-show ;  or,  the  children  may  be  allowed 
to  sell  the  products  of  their  gardens  or  to  give 
them  to  hospitals  or  other  worthy  objects.  This 
individuality  of  interest  can  be  easily  maintained  in 
the  plot-garden,  but  it  is  more  difficult  in  the 
ornamental  garden  in  which  the  plants  are  grown 
in  continuous  borders. 

In  order  to  indicate  how  some  of  the  questions 
are  attacked  by  those  who  are  engaged  in  the 
work,  I  reprint  an  article  on  the  Whittier  School- 
Garden,  by  Miss  Jean  E.  Davis,  that  appeared 
recently  in  Country  Life  in  America  : 

**What  is  believed  to  be  the  largest  school- 
garden  in  the  United  States  is  to  be  found  in 
Virginia  at  the  Hampton  Institute  for  Negro  and 
Indian  youth,  where  it  forms  part  of  the  equipment 
of  the  Whittier  Training  School— the  practice- 
school  of  the  institution.  Two  acres  of  ground 
are  given  up  to  the  garden,  the  larger  part  being 
divided  into  two  hundred  individual  plots,  varying 
in  size  from  four  by  six  feet  for  the  pickaninnies  of 
the  kindergarten,  to  eleven  by  fifteen  feet  for  the  old- 
est boys  and  girls.  Each  plot  is  owned,  for  the  time 
being,  by  two  children,  who  enter  into  partner- 
ship and  share  equally  in  the  work  as  well  as  in  the 
profits  of  the  garden — spading,  raking,  planting, 
hoeing,  harvesting  with  their  own  hands,  and  using 
the  products  in  their  own  homes  or  selling  them  to 
their  neighbors.     The  young  farmers  are  not  given 


INQUIRIES  147 

carte  blanche,  however,  in  regard  to  the  kind  of 
crops  they  shall  raise  or  their  position  in  the  beds. 
The  supervision  of  the  w^ork  is  in  the  hands  of  one 
person— the  director  of  the  agricultural  department 
of  the  Institute— who  decides  what  vegetables  and 
flowers  shall  be  planted  and  how  they  shall  be 
arranged.  This  plan  serves  to  give  symmetry  and 
order  to  the  garden  as  a  whole,  and  adds  materially 
to  the  educative  value  of  the  work.  Most  of  the 
plants  selected  are  such  as  are  easily  cultivated  and 
such  as  mature  rapidly,  Hke  lettuce,  radishes, 
nasturtiums  and  marigolds;  though  peas,  beans, 
cabbage,  spinach  and  tomatoes  are  also  cultivated. 
The  gardens  are  made  and  planted  both  in  the  fall 
and  in  the  spring,  the  crops  sown  in  spring  being 
cared  for  during  the  long  summer  vacation  by 
volunteers. 

"The  beds  are  separated  from  each  other  by 
paths  one  foot  wide,  and  are  arranged  for  the 
different  classes  in  sections,  having  two-foot  paths 
between  them.  Extra  plots,  six  feet  wide,  extending 
the  full  length  of  each  section,  are  used  for  overflow 
work  by  pupils  who  are  exceptionally  quick  and 
energetic.  Strawberries  and  raspberries  are 
sometimes  permitted  in  these  beds.  Another 
opportunity  for  work  out  of  the  usual  routine  is 
afforded  by  a  space  of  three-quarters  of  an  acre 
which  is  reserved  at  the  rear  of  the  garden  for  the 
purpose  of  teaching  the  larger  boys  how  to  use  a 
horse  and  plow.  In  order  that  the  esthetic  side  of 
gardening  may  not  be  neglected — the  cultivation  of 
a  sense  of  beauty  being  esteemed  of  equal  impor- 


148      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

tance  with  practical  instruction  in  agriculture — a 
large  lawn  has  been  placed  at  the  entrance,  while 
border  beds  of  ornamental  flowers  form  the  other 
boundaries. 

**  But  if  school-gardening  were  confined  to  the 
making  of  gardens,  the  planting  of  seeds  and  the 
cultivation  of  crops,  beneficial  as  these  experiences 
might  be,  it  would  still  fall  far  short  of  accom- 
plishing the  end  desired  in  introducing  this  subject 
into  school  courses.  It  would  soon  degenerate  into 
either  play  or  drudgery.  To  give  it  dignity  and 
interest,  and  to  make  it  of  practical  value  in  later 
life,  the  gardening  is  supplemented  or  preceded  by 
simple  experiments  in  the  class-room  illustrating 
the  principles  of  germination  and  plant-growth ; 
and  a  study  is  made  of  seed  dispersion,  the 
comparative  value  of  soils  and  the  work  of  beneficial 
and  injurious  insects.  Seeds  are  planted  in  window- 
boxes,  the  seedlings  affording  material  for  language 
and  drawing  lessons  before  being  transplanted  into 
the  outdoor  beds.  The  decorative  value  of  flowers, 
leaves  and  berries  is  considered,  and  the  children 
are  encouraged  to  make  gardens  at  their  homes 
from  which  they  may  gather  bouquets  of  flowers 
for  their  dinner-tables. 

'^  The  results  of  two  years'  experience  in  teaching 
gardening  and  nature-study  at  the  Whittier  School 
are  most  gratifying.  While  at  first  it  was  necessary 
to  use  compulsion  with  some  of  the  older  girls,  and 
the  little  ones  merely  considered  anything  '  good 
fun  '  that  took  them  out  of  doors,  they  now  without 
exception  look  forward  with  eager  enthusiasm  to 


INQUIRIES  149 

*  gardening  day/  which  comes  twice  a  week  to  each 
of  the  four  hundred.  Large  crops  have  been 
gathered  and  proudly  carried  home  ;  seeds  have 
been  in  demand  for  home  gardens,  sixty  or  more 
of  which  have  been  made  in  the  neighborhood  ; 
and  last  spring  children  to  the  number  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty  volunteered  to  cultivate  the 
gardens  during  the  summer  vacation.  In  the  home- 
gardens  there  has  been  great  diversity  of  crops. 
Besides  the  usual  school  plants,  children  have 
raised  wheat,  corn,  pumpkins,  sweet  and  Irish 
potatoes,  and  also  many  kinds  of  flowers.  A 
wholesome  rivalry  has  sprung  up  between  the 
owners  of  adjoining  beds  in  the  school-garden,  and 
pride  in  the  appearance  of  the  school-grounds  has 
been  stimulated.  An  interest  in  birds  and  insects, 
and  an  appreciation  of  the  beauty  of  wayside 
flowers  and  other  common  things,  have  been 
developed  ;  and  the  roughest  children  have  been 
made  more  gentle  by  handling  the  beautiful 
flowers  that  they  have  grown,  the  result  of  their 
own  care  and  patience.  A  regard  for  the  property 
and  rights  of  others  is  among  the  results  of  this 
cooperative  gardening,  also  an  appreciation  of  the 
advantages  of  working  together,  and  a  certain 
forbearance  and  loyalty  to  one's  partner,  all  of 
which  are  lessons  of  inestimable  value,  especially 
to  colored  children.  When  we  add  to  these 
unconscious  influences  of  school-gardening  the 
conscious  self-respect  and  self-reliance  that  come 
from  the  abihty  to  produce  from  the  soil  something 
of  one's  very  own,  it  will  be  admitted  that  this  sub- 


I50      THE   NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

ject  is  worthy  of  an  honorable  place  in  the  course 
of  study  of  our  common  schools,  of  which  the 
Whittier  School  is  only  a  type/' 

Why  should  this  nature-study  be  confined  to  the 
schools  ? 

It  should  not  be  confined  to  schools.  Too  often 
it  is  so  limited  because  we  are  in  the  habit  of 
delegating  the  training  of  our  children  to  a 
professional  class  of  teachers.  The  home  should 
be  the  most  perfect  school,  and  the  parents  should 
be  the  ideal  teachers.  In  the  increasing  complica- 
tion of  our  lives,  however,  the  division  of  labor 
forces  the  children  more  and  more  from  the 
home-training  into  the  school-training;  therefore 
it  is  increasingly  important  that  we  give  good  heed 
to  the  maintenance  of  good  schools.  But  even 
yet  the  home-training  should  afford  an  auxiliary  to 
the  school-training.  There  should  be  more  than 
one  common  bond  of  method  and  purpose.  One 
of  these  bonds  should  certainly  be  the  desire  to  put 
the  child  into  sympathetic  relation  with  its  own 
necessities :  this  is  nature-study,  for,  to  a  very  great 
degree,  the  child  is  the  creature  of  its  environments. 

I  believe  in  the  value  of  education  by  means  of 
literature  and  history  and  science  and  art ;  but  if  I 
were  confined  to  one  means  I  should  choose  that 
education  that  would  lead  me  to  love  the  things 
that  I  see  and  the  work  that  I  do  day  by  day.  This 
outlook  I  should  want  to  impress  on  my  children ; 
but  I  could  not  impress  it  by  any  mere  intellectual 
means.  It  is  an  affair  of  the  heart ;  and  if  I  do  not 
live  it  I  cannot  teach  it. 


INQUIRIES  151 

What  shall  we  do  with  the  children  in  the  summer 
vacation  ? 

This  is  an  exceedingly  important  question  and 
very  difficult  to  answer.  The  teacher  has  no  con- 
trol of  the  child  during  this  period.  He  can  suggest 
what  the  pupil  may  do,  but  the  probability  Is  that 
the  pupil  will  merely  drift. 

I  am  convinced  that  there  is  a  great  loss  of 
efficiency  in  the  overlong  and  undirected  summer 
vacation  for  both  child  and  youth.  The  colleges 
are  beginning  to  feel  this,  as  shown  in  the  develop- 
ment of  four-term  systems.  The  summer  schools 
are  protests  against  an  idle  summer.  Herein  is 
where  the  farm  boy  gets  much  of  his  efficiency  for 
the  battle  of  life—in  the  fact  that  he  has  no  long 
periods  of  enforced  idleness,  laziness  and  emptiness. 
He  is  kept  at  work.  He  grows  up  with  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  value  of  time.  He  knows  what 
industry  is  and  what  it  brings.  Steady  effort  and 
application  become  the  warp  and  woof  of  his  life. 
The  town  boy  of  the  upper  and  middle  class,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  likely  to  become  accomplished 
in  feats  of  idleness.  One-fourth  his  time  is  mere 
vacation,  or,  rather,  mere  vacancy.  He  is  handi- 
capped when  later  he  comes  squarely  against  the 
realities  of  life. 

I  believe  in  a  long  vacation  if  the  time  is  occupied 
in  some  well-directed  effort.  I  am  glad  to  see  the 
development  of  the  summer-camp  idea  for  both 
boys  and  girls,  where,  under  competent  and 
sympathetic  guidance,  with  firm  but  kindly 
discipline  and    something   like   Spartan  fare,  they 


152      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

are  led  to  see  and  to  know  the  nature  in  which 
they  are.  In  such  camping-out  experiences  the 
youth  comes  hard  against  actuaHties.  He  gathers 
materials  that  are  his  own  and  that  become  a  part 
of  his  capital  throughout  his  life.  He  comes  to 
his  own  conclusions  and  to  think  for  himself, 
not  merely  to  absorb  his  knowledge  and  opinions 
from  teachers  and  books.  In  later  life  he  may 
never  have  another  opportunity  to  get  this 
actual  experience. 

I  wonder  how  many  persons  ever  saw  the  sun 
rise? 

Will  not  this  nature-study  work  interfere  with  school 
discipline  F 

That  all  depends  on  what  you  mean  by  ^*  disci- 
pline.'' If  you  mean  perfect  ^' order,"  the  child 
sitting  erect  with  clasped  hands,  then  nature-study 
work  may  annoy  you.  If  you  mean  only  that  the 
child  is  well-behaved,  obedient  and  quiet,  then  no 
ill  result  should  come  from  the  nature-study  eflfort. 
Nature-study  should  supply  some  of  the  ''  busy 
work''  between  the  regular  periods.  Really,  the 
best  means  to  secure  good  discipline  is  to  keep  the 
child  busy  and  interested.  ^*  Discipline  "  is  then  a 
mere  incident. 

The  greater  number  of  mischievous  and  refrac- 
tory children  can  be  interested  in  some  piece  of 
personal  work  or  investigation.  The  boy  who  is 
*^ licked"  at  home  and  punished  at  school  is  likely 
to  spend  his  time  midway  between  the  two;  and 
yet  he  may  be  easy  to  reach  if  only  he  is 
understood. 


INQUIRIES  153 


J 


Shall  I  correlate  the  nature-study  work  with  other 
work  ? 

This  question  can  be  answered  only  for  particular 
cases.  In  general,  correlation  is  an  advantage  to 
all  subjects  concerned  ;  however,  I  fear  that  In 
much  of  the  correlation  the  nature-study  part  is 
little  more  than  a  name.  If  the  nature-study  can 
be  kept  genuine — a  real  study  of  natural  objects  at 
first  hand — I  see  no  danger  in  correlation.  The 
correlation  usually  is  of  greater  benefit  to  the  other 
subjects  than  to  nature-study. 

Nature-study  work  can  be  correlated  with  various 
other  school  work,  notably  with  essay  writing, 
drawing  and  geography  teaching.  The  very  first 
essential  in  essay  writing  is  to  have  something  from 
one's  own  experience  to  say.  Assigned  topics  are 
usually  "hard"  at  best.  Let  the  child  write  of 
what  it  has  seen  or  done  that  day  or  yesterday — the 
butterfly,  the  tadpoles  in  the  pond  near  by,  the 
plants  growing  in  its  garden,  the  fish  in  the  aquarium, 
the  peaches  on  the  tree  by  the  barn,  the  little  world 
of  life  in  the  terrarium,  the  woodchuck  that  lives 
under  the  stone  fence.  If  the  child  has  had  no  such 
experience,  why  not  begin  by  assigning  him  a 
living  topic  to  look  up  and  report  on  in  writing  ? 

We  need  to  be  unusually  careful  to  see  that  the 
writing  is  not  exotic  to  the  child.  Avoid  the  model 
of  mere  nature-study  "  stories  "  about  things ;  these 
stories  tell  what  others  have  found  out.  They 
inform  and  instruct  and  entertain,  rather  than 
educate  and  set  the  child  to  work. 

We  stifle  the  desire  to  write  if  we  first  lay  down 


154      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

rules  and  formulas  as  to  how  to  write.  Let  the  child 
have  a  personal  experience  ;  then  allow  it  to  write. 
Did  you  ever  have  a  pupil  who  could  not  write  a 
composition,  but  who  could  write  a  letter  that  was 
full  of  originality  and  personality  ?  Why  could  it 
write  the  one  and  not  the  other?  To  often,  I  fear, 
we  prevent  our  children  from  writing  by  trying  to 
make  them  write.  Of  what  use  is  writing,  anyway, 
if  it  is  not  self-expressive  ?  So,  let  the  child 
have  something  real  and  personal  to  write  about. 
No  subject  is  too  mean.  Then  when  the  child  has 
written,  throw  away  the  blue  pencil  and  suggest 
tactfully  how  the  piece  may  be  improved  here  and 
there.     Do  not  hinder  the  child. 

I  well  remember  my  first  ^*  composition.  "  For 
days  I  had  tried  to  think  of  a  ^'subject.''  I  had 
importuned  father  and  mother  and  friends. 
"Winter,''  "Spring,"  "  The  pen  is  mightier  than 
the  sword,''  "The  pleasures  of  farm  life," 
"  Shakespeare"^all  had  equal  terrors.  Rapidlythe 
days  melted  away,  and  to-morrow  the  composition 
must  be  ready,  and  yet  of  all  the  well-sounding 
subjects  not  one  seemed  to  present  a  way  of  escape. 
The  teacher — God  bless  her ! — learned  of  my 
pHght.  She  asked  me  what  was  the  best  "  time"  I 
had  had  last  summer.  Of  course  I  knew— the  time 
when  we  all  went  blackberrying,  with  all  of  us 
rolled  into  the  bottom  of  the  wagon-box  that  went 
bumping  and  rattling  over  the  stones  and  grinding 
through  the  sand,  when  we  crept  through  the  deep 
cool  woods  and  then  came  into  the  "clearing" 
where  the   skidded   logs   were   covered   with   the 


INQUIRIES  155 

tangle  of  berries  and  berries— of  course  I  knewl 
With  what  wild  delight  I  told  her  !  and  then  she 
said,  ''Just  write  that  down  and  it  will  be  your 
composition."  From  that  day  until  this  I  hope  I 
have  written  only  on  those  things  that  are  dear  to 
me. 

I  have  a  similar  word  to  say  about  drawing.  The 
other  day  I  heard  Mrs.  Comstock  speak  on  this 
subject  before  a  convention  of  teachers.  She  is 
herself  an  artist.  She  said  that  there  are  two  kinds 
of  drawing — the  kind  that  is  the  child's  self- 
expression,  and  the  kind  that  makes  an  artistic 
picture.  It  is  natural  for  every  child  to  make 
lines  and  marks  to  express  what  it  sees  or 
experiences ;  but  when  these  lines  and  marks 
do  not  conform  to  the  ideals  of  grown-ups, 
we  discourage  the  eflFort  and  the  child  ceases 
to  draw.  Considered  as  the  effort  of  the  child 
to  express  itself,  no  drawing  can  be  "poor." 
Mrs.  Comstock  put  on  the  board  a  copy  of 
a  drawing  from  a  child's  pad,  and  it  was  as 
follows : 

'*  The  impression  that  a  man  made  on  the  child— face,  arms,  legs  " 


156      THE    NATURE-STUDY   IDEA 

We  all  laughed  ;  but  we  were  told  that  this  was  no 
cancature,  but  the  impression  that  a  man  made  on 
the  child— face,  arms,  legs. 

More  than  words,  the  drawing  may  show  what 
the  world  means  to  the  child,  even  allowing  for  all 


What  a  little  girl  sain 

the  error  in  clumsiness  with  pencil.  Do  you  not 
wonder  how  the  world  looks  to  the  little  girl  in  the 
second  grade  who  made  all  these  drawings  and  sent 


INQUIRIES  157 

them  to  Uncle  John  ?  Would  you  not  like  to  take 
her  on  your  knee  and  have  her  explain  them  to 
you? 

Primarily,  drawing  is  a  means  of  expressing 
what  we  see  and  feel  ;  now  and  then  a  person 
develops  the  ability  to  make  a  picture  that  pleases 
others,  and  he  becomes  an  artist.  Primarily,  our 
interest  in  the  external  world  is  one  of  sympathy 
and  personality  ;  now  and  then  a  person  develops 
the  ability  to  make  discoveries  and  to  record  them, 
and  he  becomes  a  scientist. 

Correlation  of  nature-study  and  drawing  should 
give  excellent  results  to  both  subjects.  The  nature- 
study  should  afiord  objects  in  which  the  pupil  is 
genuinely  interested  ;  the  drawing  should  aid  in 
focusing  the  observation  and  making  it  accurate. 
Drawing  should  be  encouraged  primarily  for  the 
purpose  of  discovering  what  the  child  really  sees. 
As  the  child  sees  more,  and  with  greater  accuracy, 
the  drawings  improve.  So  the  drawings  become 
an  approximate  measure  of  the  progress  of  the 
pupil.  Do  not  measure  the  drawings  merely  as 
drawings,  or  from  the  artist's  point  of  view.  We 
are  likely  to  dwell  so  much  on  the  mere  product  of 
the  child's  work  that  we  forget  the  child. 

Too  early  in  the  school  life  do  we  begin  to  make 
pupils  mere  artists  and  literators.  First  the  child 
should  be  encouraged  to  express  himself;  then  he 
may  be  taught  to  draw  and  to  compose. 

Is  nature-study  on  the  wane  F 

Real  nature-study  cannot  pass  away.  We  arc 
children  of  nature,  and  we  have  never  appreciated 


158      THE    NATURE-STUDY    IDEA 

the  fact  so  much  as  we  do  now.  But  the  more 
closely  we  come  into  touch  with  nature  the  less 
do  we  publish  the  fact  abroad.  We  may  hear 
less  about  it,  but  it  will  be  because  we  are  living 
nearer  to  it  and  have  ceased  to  feel  the  necessity 
of  advertising  it. 

Teaching  may  not  be  nature-study  merely  be- 
cause it  is  so  called.  A  superintendent  told  me  that 
he  had  forbidden  nature-study  in  his  schools.  I 
asked  him  what  the  work  had  been.  He  said  that  it 
was  the  dissecting  of  cats.  A  publisher  told  me  that 
nature-study  is  waning.  I  asked  why  he  thought 
so.  He  replied  that  his  nature-study  books  were 
not  selling  as  well  as  they  did.  I  told  him  that  I 
was  glad. 

Much  that  is  called  nature-study  is  only  diluted 
and  sugar-coated  science.  This  will  pass.  Some 
of  it  is  mere  sentimentalism.  This  also  will  pass. 
With  the  changes,  the  term  nature-study  may  fall 
into  disuse ;  but  the  name  matters  little  so  long 
as  we  hold  to  the  essence. 

All  new  things  must  be  unduly  emphasized,  else 
they  cannot  gain  a  foothold  in  competition  with 
things  that  are  established.  For  a  day,  some  new 
movement  is  announced  in  the  daily  papers,  and 
then,  because  we  do  not  see  the  head  lines,  we 
think  that  the  movement  is  dead ;  but  usually  when 
things  are  heralded  they  have  only  just  appeared. 
So  long  as  the  sun  shines  and  the  fields  are  green 
we  shall  need  to  go  to  nature  for  our  inspiration 
and  our  respite  ;  and  our  need  is  the  greater  with 
every  increasing  complexity  of  our  lives. 


INQUIRIES  159 

Would  you  advise  me  to  take  up  nature-study  teaching  F 
Yes,  if  you  feel  the  "  call  "  to  it  ;  otherwise,  no. 
I  would  not  have  every  teacher  teach  nature- 
study  any  more  than  I  would  have  every  one  teach 
grammar.  Every  pupil  should  have  nature-study, 
under  one  name  or  another  ;  but  he  should  receive 
his  inspiration  from  the  teacher  who  himself  is  so 
full  of  the  subject  that  he  teaches  with  spirit  and 
with  cheerfulness. 


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